F escaped again.

At the very least the encounter cemented the fact that the Consuls were unapologetic villains, if the Seekers' past experiences hadn't already. F had admitted that to him, and probably the rest of his ilk, people were just playthings. Primrose sighed, her magic fading from her grip. She was angry, but she didn't think chasing down the Consul would be fruitful. It hadn't been before.

Therion scrubbed a hand over his face, shoving the high collar of his poncho down as he did. He probably should have expected that. Probably should have just let Primrose or Jesse take the Consul out. For a thief, Therion liked to think he wasn't much of a bad guy - but growing up the way he did, he'd never felt very strongly about leaving people to get their just desserts. He knew that F deserved whatever sentence his companions wanted to deliver, but one or more of the spirits he'd absorbed must have changed his morals a little. Next time (because he was sure they'd have the misfortune to run into him again), he'd have to squash the squirming feeling of right and wrong.

On the bright side, in his initial panic F had given them some information. Sectonia was quick to point this out, even going so far as to recap everything the Consul had actually said versus what the queen had extrapolated from those words. The sudden deluge of information, presented like a lesson, was so reminiscent of Professor Albright that both Primrose and Therion noted it. When combined with Ms. Fortune's simple puns, the former's lips curled up in a slight smile, alleviating some of her frustration and the latter huffed out a brief, quiet laugh.

"Did she get even more full of herself?" Therion said as an amused aside to his fellow thief Ms. Fortune when the queen implied that only a couple among the group could infer what she had from F's answers. He did listen to her explanation though, as did Primrose, though the dancer tilted her head slightly at some of the assumptions the queen made.

It was a lot to think about... for later. When Ms. Fortune put the question out on where to go next, Sectonia took the words right out of Primrose's mouth.

"I wholeheartedly agree," she said, nodding at the queen. She knew she could count on Sectonia for luxury, and they'd visited spas together a couple of times now. Hopefully it could become a tradition. "Once we get back above ground again, we'll find a nice place to relax. Or perhaps we can use the trains to head back over to Gerudo Town, their hot spring was lovely."

Therion rolled his eyes, recalling that Gerudo Town didn't allow men into the city. If they went back there he'd be stuck in that little oasis inn again, along with the rest of the guys in their group, but he didn't really care enough to bring it up and ruin in his friend's much wanted spa trip.

It turned out that the Seekers would be down one woman for their potential hot springs stay, as Jesse had other business to attend to. The sudden announcement of her departure surprised the Travelers, though Primrose had known it would happen at some point. A while ago, Jesse mentioned she had friends already out there in the world, and after tracking down and defeating one of Galeem's Guardians there was no better time to return to them.

Primrose smiled warmly at Jesse. Since meeting her, Primrose had found her strange sense of humor coupled with her decisiveness and her casual attitude in the face of the unknown made her enjoyable to be around. "Likewise," she said to the Director, in hopes that they'd see each other again. "I'm glad we met. I'm not sure how far apart the Linkpearls can work, but try calling if you need anything."

"Gee, thanks," Therion said to Jesse. His tone was sarcastic, but there was an expression that passed as a grin on his face. "See ya."

Parting like this would normally be a little sad, but considering the other comrades the Seekers had met along the way would disappear mysteriously or meet an early end, a proper goodbye for once was nice.

After Jesse left for the Metro, giving her answer for "what next," Primrose figured that would be the next stop for the rest of them as well. Like she'd said before, she very much was looking forward to getting out of the underground and getting a proper wash, a good soak, some nice food... but there was something else she wanted to do here before she left. One last loose thread.

"Before we go... when we were all separated early on, the Koopas and I met an old king. He was already freed from Galeem when we met him, and he'd been forced to work for the Consuls. He had a lot of knowledge, and promised to share it once we succeeded in our mission." Primrose honestly couldn't remember how much of this they'd told the others before. About Asgore, the Flame Clock they'd seen, the timeline of the world, or any of that before meeting again in the Home of Tears. "Now that it's done, I want to meet with him again. Since the Guardian was inside of that host, I'm not sure how much of the Under was freed from Galeem when it died... if any of it. We'll tell him about the Guardian, P, and F. In exchange, the truth."

Of course, "we" would be herself and anyone else that wanted to come with her to this meeting. She certainly wouldn't begrudge any of the other Seekers from getting back into the sunlight as quickly as possible.

An orange glow radiated from the bugs eyes, though but an empty lifeless husk it still could recall it's ability with a weapon it mindlessly swung at the trespasser - the man, dressed in ragged dirty clothes he looked much the part of the ruffians he encountered above.

Osvald stumbled backwards away from the mindless husk's attack, the warriors nail tinked against the floor 'Hmph, it's without consciousness it seems.'

The bug grunted, raising its weapon as it approached the scholar it's attacks easily it came at him then - clink it's weapon clattered on the ground and the husk fell without so much a peep the light in it's empty eye sockets blinked out.

"This is the second time.." mused the scholar to himself, the dead were becoming lifeless it seemed the force driving them was fading "Hmph, if I am correct the temple should be ahead..There I will find my answers.." Osvald dusted himself off, getting up the chain around his neck clattered and clanged lightly.

Making his way through the underground, he encountered nary another bug, yet passed many empty husks 'Something tell me this was the work of-' Osvald's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of movement and voices ahead, the Seekers.

He stepped out of the dim light in the cave, illuminated by the flame in the palm of his hand "We meet again." finally he looked at himself, frowning he realized his clothes were no better than the tatters he wore while imprisoned but still he wore his large overcoat.

After finally getting everyone relayed where they needed to go, Midna had also headed up top side inorder to get some sun which, despite how it nipped at her eyes, was a welcome sight after spending half a week under the extinction belt, with only a brief interlude under the stars to break it up.

Those who found themselves there got a chance to listen in/follow along with Sandalphon’s chat with the fuzzy haired inventor of the contraption they were currently aboard

”I could do with about 17 spa days just to wash the air of that city off” Midna in response to the incredibly invitation to take it easy for a bit, before feeling bad about none of her prior spa going partners where here, being either in either teams or staying behind in Midgar, before getting a sinking feeling as a bit of her brain tossed back up a mostly glossed over comment by James Shirogane.

A part of her really didn’t want to find out the answer, but she knew it would eat at her if she didn’t ask, and so she did, even if it was with great resignation ”What was that you said about a ‘whole Alcamoth situation’ you mentioned?”

"That's what I wanna know too!" Pit said. He'd come up out of the interior of the Victory like everyone else eager for a breath of real fresh air, but the mention of Alcamoth had pulled his attention away from the sunny scenery and animals. The word "situation" didn't imply anything nice. "Is something going on?"

The questions seemed to deflate the old man just as the news about the Guardian lifted his spirits. He hesitated for a crucial moment, his stuttering silence casting a serious pall over the Seekers’ not-so-joyful reunion. “Ohhhh, er, you haven’t heard…? Hoo, nelly…well, uh, y’see.” Shirogane wrung his hands. “After the Sandswept Sky, we got stuck near Gerudo Town for a li’l while makin’ repairs to the Virgin Victory, while the folks who wrangled the last couple Guardians took off on the Metro.”

He scratched his head, very much ill at ease around the heroes, and none more so than Sandalphon, her gaze unblinkingly severe. “It was quiet after that, we didn’t hear nothin’. Figured no news was good news, y’know? Eventually we finished up and headed back to Alcamoth, but when we got there…” The inventor stared down at the deck. “The whole city…i-i-it was gone. Knocked out the doggone sky and sunk ‘neath the Eryth Sea. In the wreckage, we found bits an’ pieces of equipment and vehicles belongin’ to other factions. Our workin’ theory’s that Alcamoth got attacked while we were gone. The Centennials did some search and rescue, both in the ruins and ‘round the shores, but the place was empty. No spirits or nothin’, so we’re hopin’ most of ‘em managed to escape. Some of ‘em had to, at least. But before we could pick up a trail, that dang lightning-chucker showed up and chased us off.” He shook his head. “I’m awful sorry, y’all.”

Goldlewis had drifted over when he sensed the solemn mood brewing, then listened in silence while Shirogane relayed the news. Though he, like Sandalphon, had never seen the floating city for themselves, they both understood it to be the Seekers’ base of operations, not just a hideout but a city in its own right. Figuring he had no right to comment on the matter, the veteran held his peace, and Sandalphon waited for the others’ perspective while she processed the sordid information.

”Gone…?” Midna asked disbelievingly before uttering falteringly ”How? It was a whole city of fighters! How could… how… I…” and then dragging a hand over the exposed half of her face before simply terminating her words with a disheartened ”Fuck”

”I do hope people escaped, but… that is really concerning. Was it an inside job?” Blazermate said, concerned about what had happened much like Midna. Roland had no idea what they were talking about, but figured it was something with allies of theirs or something.

"No way," Pit answered quickly, dismissing the idea that there might have been a betrayal. "Everyone at Alcamoth was committed to helping beat Galeem. Nobody there was still brainwashed either!"

Zenkichi most of all, even more so than Geralt, looked like the wind had been knocked out of him. ”But…that was…it was supposed to be safe…for Akane…” Losing the prospect of a safe haven for his daughter made a flurry of emotions cross his face, which settled on a dismal sort of acceptance. He hadn’t planned to just do a job and then sit back with Akane in safety, but losing the promise of a safe haven for his daughter was a big hit to his morale.

Geralt, meanwhile, was contemplating. They’d likely have to delay their investigation into finding the next Guardian until after they had some clue as to what happened to whoever survived the attack on Alcamoth. Even if they lost the physical space, they could still rebuild the network they’d had before the attack, perhaps even de-centralizing it a bit to make it more difficult to be attacked again. On top of that, the obvious loss of morale for everybody, herself included, meant that their next step had to be getting the Seekers back into fighting shape before moving on.

It was (or, had been) a big place with a lot of people, but it was hard to imagine any one of them would work against the cause. And even harder that such a person would escape the notice of Alcamoth's leaders. So it must have been true that some other powerful group had attacked the city. And they'd been even stronger than all of the fighters living there? Pit clenched his hands into fists, but shook his head to make sure any darker thoughts stayed away.

”Where I’m from, entire worlds were wrecked or even lost entirely because of the actions of a single man.” Roxas offered. While this wasn’t directly related to this situation, it did allow him to make another point, ”And from everything I’ve seen and heard of them… the Consuls seem to be an entire group of equally threatening bad guys. ” Not that there was anything explicitly indicating or proving that the Consuls were involved. But that was the only answer that made any real sense.

”I mean, if we can basically break down an entire city and send it to ruin…” he began to say, but then trailed off as if wanting to stop himself from going any further with that thought. Even he knew that nobody wanted to hear someone make comparisons between the Seekers and the Consuls. But that wouldn’t stop such an implication from hanging in the air.

"...Roxas is probably right! I mean who else could it have been if all the Guardians are stuck in one place, and the rest of the world is all Galeem-ified?"

And although Roxas' next words could have been interpreted more ominously, what Pit heard was "and we're just as strong." It actually served to encourage the angel more, and he proclaimed his more optimistic outlook. "I'm sure most everyone could have made it out okay, especially if there weren't any spirits left behind! Everyone must just be scattered around, maybe hiding? 'Cause there's no way those jerks could have taken out every body there!"

Just off the top of his head, Pit recalled that the ranks of Alcamoth had included Princess Zelda, Mewtwo, Nero, Guile, Falco, Vandham, and Mario. The Mario! Not to mention countless other heroes! It was impossible they'd all gone down with the city... wasn't it?

”Well… I don’t know what you guys are talking about but it sounds bad. Sucks to hear I guess.” Roland said, a bit on guard with this whole peaceful area. Stuff like this didn’t exist where he was from, not to his knowledge. Not with some dark undertone to them at least.

Though they might be in more or less the same boat in terms of their proximity to the event, Goldlewis disliked the indifference with which Roland treated the grim tidings. As bad as the news was, the fact that nobody truly knew the scope of the disaster offered some semblance of mercy. A man of the veteran’s position, encumbered with the responsibility of soldiers’ lives, had heard his fair share of casualty reports. How many stories and memories had he seen aggregated into mere statistics?

Then again, Roland was always making subtly horrific allusions to his home world, painting vague but bleak pictures of commonplace atrocities. Perhaps their experiences had desensitized the both of them. That allowed Goldlewis to consider the silver lining, such that it was. If the Seekers had operated for days without contact from their HQ, and even defeated a Guardian, their success must not be contingent on Alcamoth’s support. Logically speaking, this shouldn’t be a deathblow to the team’s capabilities. Hopefully, it wouldn’t cripple their morale either. Of course, this also implied that the whole operation was held together by duct tape to begin with. Goldlewis glanced at Sandalphon, wondering if the adroit archangel had come to the same conclusions.

For her part, however, the past concerned Sandalphon much less than the future. “A complete vanishment, with no distress calls of any kind…? While I understand that we are merely field teams and not the organization’s leadership, the idea that so much of the organization could act in complete ignorance of such a tragedy is inexcusable.” Her expression contained severity almost to the point of anger. “It is clear that we need a complete overhaul of our communications infrastructure. I will provide whatever help I can to put together a complete picture of the campaign, its personnel, and so forth in order to keep all branches of the organization interconnected at all times, until such a time that a proper system can be implemented.”

She paused, considering what her proposed network would need to achieve efficient interchange of information. “Though I have pledged my support to your cause, there is far too much I still don’t know. To that end, could all of you please provide the names, descriptions, assignments, and last known whereabouts of every known operative not stationed at Alcamoth? If we’re to establish a path forward, making contact with the organization’s scattered remnants should be priority one.”

"Not at Alcamoth? Let's see..." Pit folded his arms, tilting his head up to the sky and squinting at the clouds as he did his best to remember. There were teams that went out to secure areas, gather resources, and the like, but he would be very hard pressed to remember who had been deployed and to where. Much easier would be the other half of the people that had all met at Twilight Town. "Well, there was a whole group of us that split up. We went to Midgar, and the others went... somewhere else.”

He moved quickly past that less than helpful information, fairly sure someone else could remember while he went on to bring up as many allies as he could easily recall. "The other group had Bowser and Junior in it. And their grandpa! Oh wait, I think it was their grandma? Anyway they're all Koopas- kinda like turtles, except Bowser who is also kinda like a dragon too since he’s the king I guess. Well he usually is, but last time I saw him, he had all this other weird stuff coming out of his shell. Also, there was Omori - he’s an all black-and-white kid, literally. And a cyborg detective made out of instruments! His name was easy to remember, it was Big Band.”

At this, Goldlewis made a small addition. “There was also that li’l cyborg gal always nippin’ at his heels. Maroon top hat, metal teeth, empty eyes. Peacock, her name was.” Though he’d only been with the Seekers during their stay in Al Mamoon before Midgar, he’d gotten to know a few of them, especially at that dinner with Ram. “Then…well, Tora and Poppi.” He maintained a neutral expression, but the heaviness to his tone of voice said everything. “That redheaded lady Jesse, too.”

After Pit vaguely indicated some heights with his hands and gave a little more in depth information about what a few allies looked like, he glanced back at Shirogane. He did at least remember that the man’s friend had elected to join the Seekers, since departing from the Virgin Victory, so he made sure to bring him up as well. ”Wonder Red was with us too. We all got split up in that big train station, but he was okay the last time I saw him!

"Actually that was the last time we saw any of the others, wasn’t it? The Nya-Metro. So I guess that’d be their last known location. They were going to go find and beat a Guardian, just like we did. We got attacked in the Metro but as far as I know, everyone ended up alright.” He looked at Sandalphon. "Red was dressed like a superhero, with a domino mask and everything. Really cool looking! …Is any of this helping?"

The archangel nodded. “Every bit helps.”

“Red’s one o’ ours,” Shirogane mentioned. “We're still gettin’ his signal, so I figured he's fine. We were gonna pick him up next, but the signal’s comin’ from Edinburgh.” He mispronounced it as ‘eddin burg’ rather than ‘eddin burrah’. “So the ship’s gotta be one hundred percent if we're goin’ that far.”

Sandalphon nodded again. “I see.” Every bit of information went straight into her mental database. Hopefully that wasn't the last of what the Seekers could offer.

”There was also the queen bee Sectonia. I think her and Midna were friends?” the princess gave a shake of the hand in a so-so sort of way in response to this ”She was almost as strong as Bowser, but a lot more standoffish from what I remember. I know she wouldn’t let me ride her like I do Bowser.” Blazermate said, mentioning one of the others that hadn’t been mentioned. ”Oh, and the ship girl Rika. I uh, hope she's doing ok. Maybe they made her work better on land?”

Roland listened to all of this, and started laughing a bit to himself as he reached a conclusion. ”So let me get this straight. Your group sent the more human and robotic looking members to Midgar, and left what sounds like monsters and animals to go ‘deal’ with a guardian somewhere else? And two of them are ‘royals’? What am I about to get myself thrown into…” Roland said, a bit of excitement in his voice, masked behind a large amount of skepticism. This would be very new and different from what he was used to, but one doesn’t just shrug off their past so easily.

”I wouldn’t call Bowser or Sectonia animals. They are as big or bigger than Geralt ! Bowser usually lets people ride on his shell, he's such a sweetheart. Don’t be intimidated by him when you meet him. Although… that reminds me…. Think he adopted another kid? He seems to try at every opportunity and well… yeah…”

”Also a royal” Midna lightly added, having stewed long enough in grief to get in on being productive, and doing so by adding some more details ”I set out from the city with a dancer named Primrose, who then found and picked up a friend of hers called Therion along our travels. A woman and a man. Human, both of them. Bit roguish but good people under that. Should be with the other team, as long as they didn’t get lost”

She also added, though it was a touch tangential, ”They aren't exactly with us, and I’m not sure where they are now, but the Phantom Thieves are a team of masked human teenagers that are free from Galeem who helped us in the desert. Their leader, Joker, has that region’s Gaudian’s spirit. Turned it into a ‘Persona’ which is a bit like a more permanent striker I think. Something from their world” because that last was probably important to know. Which made her also think that: ”We, ah, haven't exactly kept good track of the defeated Guardians now that I think of it. The two the team got before I joined are on people who went off on their own”

”Joker turned a Guardian into a Persona? Yeah, that sounds like him…” Zenkichi mused.

”Yeah, as someone who has been here from the start, there was an evil dragon version of Bowser we fought… I forget who got that one though. Then there was a big black blocky dragon we got, who someone named the Courier got, who then left. He was some cowboy looking guy. And uh… Wait, I don't think we got one from the Dead Zone. Do we have to go back there? The place got nuked but wasn’t there something about the guardian regenerating there since no one claimed the spirit?” Blazermate said, rattling on herself.

”Huh? Dead Zone? What's that?” Roland said, noting that they’d have to go there and that sounded ominous.

”Oh, it's a place overrun by zombies, the undead, zombie spawning things, and all sorts of evil things. It's where I got my arm shield here.” Blazermate said. ”Yeah, we’ll probably have to go back there and clear out that guardian. But it should be all available, all of its support got nuked so it should be quick in and out.”

Roland had a disgusted look on his face hearing that zombies were real. Sure zombies existed where he came from, but they were more… puppets than actual zombies.

"I dunno… that demon tree is still there in the Dead Zone, so the boss must still be there too, but maybe some other stuff could have survived. But like, in an undead-way," Pit mentioned, having seen the Qliphoth during the recon mission he'd undertaken. That and the "time rain," which… oh, right. The angel hummed, furrowing his eyebrows and tapping on his head, thinking again. Right, right, the timefall, Bridges, the Chiral Network they wanted to set up... that all seemed pretty important. He'd have to bring it up to Sandalphon, especially if she was intent on coordination now that Alcamoth had sunk.

“Forgot about Ace,” Geralt added. “Red hair, very eager, awful puns. Most of them about monsters from his world, so it just sounds like he's saying words wrong, too. Ironically, I met him once before all this happened. Portals to another world happen where I come from. In fact, our world was devastated by creatures from other worlds appearing millenia ago. Humans don't actually come from the world I do, either. We were left stranded there from another world as well.” Her rambling was a bit offhand, but it served to ask an unspoken question: How much had Galeem interfered in other worlds before this?

Though almost distracted by the offhand comment about the nature of Geralt's world and people, her mention of puns brought another face to Pit's mind. "Oh yeah, and Ms. Fortune! She was telling a lot of puns too! She had ears like a cat and a tail like a fish, but I think she's a human? She looks pretty close to one anyway. She could split herself apart and shoot lasers from her eyes!" How could he have forgotten that!

"Was that everybody?" Pit wondered aloud. He couldn't think of anyone else that he knew for sure would have been operating outside of Alcamoth.

"Because - circling back for a sec - I just remembered Bridges. They said they were going to set some 'ky-rall' thing up at Alcamoth and help get back into the Dead Zone. It's kind of impossible right now - there's rain that makes you old, and invisible 'beach things.' There was this meeting, and they... uhm, asked us to help with Ever Crisis, eheh..." Pit couldn't help but grimace, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly given what had transpired immediately before their arrival here. Since their base was in Midgar, he didn't know what was going to happen to them. "If they already got connected to Smash City before it got attacked, maybe they know what happened? Even if they don't, we should probably find them so we can help each other."

He hoped he was making sense. Honestly he had spent most of the meeting just trying to keep all the information straight in his head, and then was blindsided and upset by the whole baby thing. He looked between Shirogane and the people most familiar with Midgar; Goldlewis, Roland, Sandalphon and Zenkichi, really hoping he wouldn't have to try and explain what Bridges itself was if someone else could do better. "You guys know about Bridges, right?"

Goldlewis nodded emphatically, “Yeah, the logistics and delivery company. They're a household name in Midgar. They lent us a hand with the hideout, in fact.” He paused for a moment. “Now that I think about it, they'd know we won ‘cause o’ Karin’s speech. I'd be surprised if they don't reach out to the SOU. Lemme call up home base, see what's goin’ on.”

Shirogane seemed amped up by the prospect of reunification. “Yessir! We Centennials were workin’ with them good folks from Bridges from the beginnin’. In fact, they're the reason why we went to Alcamoth in the first place. Once we reconnect, I reckon we’ll be in business.”

“I remember Mewtwo mentioning them. The leadership of Alcamoth trusted them. We ought to see how they're doing.” Geralt advised.

”Yeah, I’ve had to work with Bridges before, as a Turk.” Zenkichi added. ”They’re legit. Though all of their tech goes way over my head.”

Encouraged by the realization, Goldlewis stepped away to make the call.

”You guys… kinda lost me a while ago.” Roxas admitted. He’d only just joined the Seekers about three days ago or so. But it sounded like they'd already done a ton of stuff before they ever showed up at Twilight Town. And right about now was when he finally remembered that he had some info he needed to share.

”I almost forgot,” Roxas said with a snap of his fingers, ”When I talked to that girl from the Organization this morning, I learned a thing or two from her about them.” he pointed out, knowing that not all the Seekers had been present for that entire conversation. So he figured now was as good a time as any to share what he’d been told.

”She claims that defeating Galeem alone isn’t going to put the worlds back where they belong. Evidently the Organization has some plan of their own to do that, or so they claim.” Naturally, Roxas’ own distrust of the Organization was no secret and so how he was framing them needed to be taken with a grain of salt, ”She didn’t tell me what that plan was, but she did tell me who was giving the Organization their orders. And based on that, I think I may have a possible theory about what that mystery plan is.”

All eyes were on Roxas. “No need to pause for suspense,” Sandalphon told him flatly. “The sooner we know, the better.”

”Xehanort.” Roxas replied, not that he expected any of them to recognize that name or why it was a big deal, ”Remember the man I mentioned a minute ago? You know, the one who wrecked and endangered multiple worlds where I come from?” It was a rhetorical question, but they’d be more than capable of inferring that that was who Xehanort was, ”As for the plan, I think it’s the same plan he tried to execute in the world we both came from…” a brief pause, ”...Kingdom Hearts.” Again, he didn’t expect any of them to know what that was. Nevertheless, the term hung ominously in the cool morning air.

”Kingdom Hearts is… kind of confusing to explain.” Roxas admitted, ”But the simple version is that, in the world Xehanort and I come from, Kingdom Hearts is the name given to the heart of all worlds. Where both Light and Darkness first originated. Someone who can summon and wield its power can use it to rewrite or simply create a whole new world. So if what Xatow said is true and Xehanort is the one giving them their orders? Then I’d bet my Keyblades that’s his ultimate goal.”

Sandalphon nodded slowly. “Our shared encounter with Xatow was, as you might expect, my first rendezvous with Organization XIII. The existence of a larger-scope goal to take the worlds’ salvation into their own hands would explain their assistance.” She peered at Roxas, her power symbols practically staring into his soul. “After this, I would like to go over all the minutia with you.”

”Sounds to me like this Kingdom Hearts thing is yet another path to become a false god. Ugh. Can I get one adventure without somebody becoming a god? Just one?” Zenkichi complained, though it was fairly lighthearted. At least he had plenty of experience with toppling self-assumed gods.

”Salvation… right.” Roxas said with a hint of sarcasm in his tone, ”I wouldn’t exactly count on Xehanort for salvation. Knowing him, the only thing he’ll do is replace Galeem with himself. Not the kind of person you should trust to put the worlds back the way they’re supposed to be.” If Roxas had his misgivings about the Organization before? Then now his distrust and antagonism toward them was ramped up even further now that he knew Xehanort was reportedly involved, ”I’m willing to bet he’s lying to the other Organization members about saving the worlds so that they’ll do what he wants. That’s pretty much how he ran the old Organization back in our own world.” After this he gave a nod to Sandalphon.

”Sure, I can do that with you. Just… fair warning, it’s kind of a long story.”

”This ‘kingdom hearts’ sounds like what the light of the Library was. Although its probably not made from thousands upon thousands of years of suffering trying to find enlightenment.” Roland said, scratching his head.

”Does he know that you know?” Midna inquired ”Because if he doesn’t we have a nice the leg up on him when it comes to the post victory backstabbing.”

Roxas blinked. They couldn’t see it because of his silver mask, but his face was turning a bit red underneath it, ”Um…” he stammered.

By now, Goldlewis had returned. “Dunno,” he muttered, stroking his whiskers. “Xatow was helpful in a roundabout way, and the one we met in Al Mamoon seemed nice enough. Maybe this Xenahort feller’s keepin’ the rest in the dark.”

That question held more importance for Sandalphon than the others might realize. “The answer might depend on what Roxas said to Xatow earlier this morning.” She narrowed her eyes. “If at all possible, we should avoid raising their suspicions.”

”Best to keep our cards close to our chest then, and see if we can get a peek at any of theirs,” Midna agreed.

”Yeah, about that…” Roxas said sheepishly, ”I might have… uh… told Xatow to tell Xehanort that I’m coming after him next once I’m done with Galeem.” he gulped with some embarrassment. In hindsight that was pretty stupid of him to do. At the time he was trying to sound intimidating. Now he was kicking himself for it.

Sandalphon’s pupils turned into lightning bolts.

”But, hey, maybe she didn’t take me seriously?” he offered in his own defense, ”And I wouldn’t be surprised if Xehanort was already aware of my being here, so… maybe he’s already anticipating that I know his plan?” If it sounded like Roxas was grasping at straws, it was because he absolutely was.

As the princess face palmed, the archangel ran a hand through her hair, brushing it out of her face for a moment. “Let us hope so.”

“There is such a thing as overestimating an opponent.” Geralt added, though she hummed. “Still, we ought to take your word for it that he’s bad news, and the type to think through every contingency. Sounds like a real pain.”

“...As for my call, turns out that Bridges did get in touch with the SOU,” Goldlewis mentioned. “They’re interested in patchin’ up our communications issue too. Said they can connect us to the Chiral Network if they can get some folks out.” He glanced at Midna. “I told ‘em we were here. If you’re willin’ to help, they can get some people out to join us and get started straight away.”

”If they need portal jumps, and can get to the places I have them, then I can do that. I very much do not want to be in the dark again about anything like this” Midna immediately agreed.

Sandalphon spoke up next. “Although we have much more to say, I believe that we should adjourn for now. We’ve been constantly embattled throughout the morning, and I suspect that we could all use some time to rest and regain our strength. After all, even if we plan for the future, we will be unable to face it if we’re not up to the task.” She spoke matter-of-factly as always, but after a moment her voice softened somewhat. “I can only assume that the fate of Alcamoth weighs heavily upon you all. The news pains me as well. It would surprise me, though, if you allowed the Consuls this victory over your hearts. If it were my friends…” The archangel paused. “I know their wish would be that I held my head high, and forged onward.”

Goldlewis nodded, pleased that Sandalphon had so elegantly given voice to his own thoughts. “I could sure use a break. After runnin’ around so much, my dogs are barkin’.” He patted his stomach, a bit less self-conscious than usual thanks to his fusion. “It’s gettin’ to be about mealtime, anyhow.”

Pit agreed with both of them, especially Sandalphon. Learning about the state they'd unwittingly put Midgar in, and the fate of Smash City Alcamoth, put a damper on the Seekers' victory. Plus it was impossible not to worry over the safety of all the people that were now missing. But he'd meant what he said before; he had faith that most everyone would have been able to make it out. And with some of their own staying behind to help the citizens of Midgar, they should be fine too. Everyone still around and fighting would just have to take up the torch for any that had passed. On the bright side, the team had just defeated one of Galeem's Guardians - and they could still connect with the widespread Bridges. Get up, fall down, get up again - like always!

"No matter what happens, there's no way we can just give up now!" Pit said, aware that he was speaking for the group at large and hopefully assuaging any doubts. Then he grinned at Goldlewis. "But yeah, let's eat!"

Maybe it was one of his recently acquired spirits, but F’s escape didn’t enrage Ganondorf as much as one might expect. At least not outwardly anyway. Of course, some of the new information that F leaked went a long way to temper the Warlord’s rage. Because if nothing else, it gave him an idea for a strategy on how to crush all the Consuls. So F’s time would come soon enough. For now, Ganondorf decided his attention was best directed at the Flame Clocks.

By this time the Koopa Troop had blundered into a tunnel they were digging for themselves. Wherever that led to, Ganondorf was certain it would be a waste of his time. But they weren’t the only ones splitting off from the group. The director, Jesse, was taking her leave. Only for her it was a permanent leave. Well, it was always a pity to lose a useful ally, but Ganondorf had no intention of trying to stop her from leaving. What she did with her life was her own business.

It was Primrose who finally said something that piqued the Gerudo’s interest. Well, multiple things actually. Firstly was her mention of yet another King, who seemed to have useful he had yet to share, which of course meant that Ganondorf wanted to hear it for himself. But then there was the second thing she mentioned.

”Gerudo Town?” he suddenly said, ”Thou mean to tell me that there is a contingent of Gerudo living in this world?” he demanded. For being a Gerudo himself, one might think he’d be happy to hear about a settlement consisting of his kinsfolk, ”Good. I was wondering where I would eventually staketh my claim in this world. But it seems it hath already been done for me.”

None of them had been aware of his being a Gerudo, except possibly for Bowser who was currently not present. ”I, too, am a Gerudo if thou art curious.” Ganondorf clarified, ”They are not quite the female-only race that thou hath likely been led to believe they are. One male is born every hundred years or so, and the rule of the tribe is fated to be his alone. But of course, so long as I continue to live, there shalt be no other Gerudo men born to the tribe.”

He then gave a look to Primrose, ”But I wish not to tarry here. Come! Let us see this king thou speaketh of. I would hear what he has to say as well. And mayhaps you could also taketh me to Gerudo Town, as well? For too long hath I been without my throne and my subjects.”

”Ah. Right. Gloating, taunting and threats followed by ultimately getting away to fight another day. That does indeed shape up to most instances of being at the mercy of villains” Kamek sighed with very retroactive hindsight. Not that anyone in the troop was going to learn from at this point if they hadn’t already.

”At least no one started monaloging and we got some answers out of him, vague as they were” he added, on for Jr to pipe up that ”Well he didn’t answer mine! I want my treasure!”

He hadn’t answered Rika’s either to be fair, but she seemed like an exception to their number given that her take away was: ”So should I just shoot him next time?”

”Next time!? We shoot him now!” Jr insisted, and while Kamek were both about to say about how he was gone Jr had an idea, no matter how foolish, and that was that Kamek ”Make me a beetle. Make me a bunch of beetles! We dig!”

”Young master I’m not sure if-” Kamek began to object, only for Bower to clap him in the back and command ”Jump to it Kamek, my boy’s got a plan!” which prompted both grumbling and compliance as the mage began to create a small herd of tunneling beetle steeds for the troop. Rika went without, as she popped on a pair of headphones, clicked on a music track, transformed into The Beast and then got to using that mega centipede's burrowing capabilities to help try and track down where F had dug off too.

While the Troop got ready to bug out, Nadia watched them with brows upturned, her head still cradled in her lap as she leaned back with her palms on the ground. “I wanna tear that jerk a new one as much as the next girl, but he could be anywhere. You dig?” Even if F had resorted to other, more subtle means of egress when it came to making his getaway, Nadia hadn’t forgotten that he could teleport. That notwithstanding, he could have tunneled in any direction. Tracking him down would be like finding a needle in a haystack the size of the entire Underground, and for her part, Nadia thought Sectonia’s idea of rest and relaxation sounded pretty sweet.

Still, she knew her words wouldn’t get through to the stubborn Koopas, and as the dirt began to fly the feral skittered away. After getting to her feet, she saw that the excavators’ progress was nothing to shake a stick at, and tried to think on the bright side. They’d just beaten a Guardian, after all. A victory like that could bring on a serious rush, and if the Seekers could do that, maybe they really could do anything. “Good luck down there!” She held her head out over the hole in order to call down after the delvers. “If you do catch that creep, give him a noogie for me! I’ll burr-owe you one!”

As if on cue, however, the Troop’s luck took a sudden turn. Digging straight down carried an inescapable element of risk, and as it happened, the pursuers dug straight into a section of loose, loamy, clumpy earth. Already disturbed by F’s sudden passage, the dirt began to shift beneath and around them, sweeping them up in a crumbly tumble through a twisting, turning tunnel like a tube slide at a water park. After a few moments the decidedly unfortunate excavators burst from the roof of a cavern in a shower of earth, entering freefall as they plunged into somewhere new.

”Gah the boxy lady was riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight”



Just a second later they landed, unharmed, on what looked like a cliffside promontory blanketed by dark, cushiony grass. A huge open space stretched out in all directions around them, not nearly as large as Ash Lake, but still impressive in its misty, pale green vastness. Out in the empty space, alien trees loomed large, each composed of multiple trunks threaded vertically through what appeared to be giant lily pads. The land beyond this promontory itself looked like a high-altitude maze, sheer drops on all sides, their opalescent turquoise stone crowned by inky purple-black foliage and more strange plants, from tubular stalks to perfectly round bushes to small black trees that smoldered like sticks of incense, their smoke oddly fragrant. Swamps of mint-colored water could be found all over, in many cases feeding waterfalls that led straight into the abyss where lantern bonsai floated, and wherever the newcomers looked the waterways offered still more fascinating flora. They could also see movement all throughout the alien archipelago, creatures familiar but a little weird. No sign of F, but if he’d dropped down here before them, there was only one direction he could go.

Bowser and a centipede body’d Rika uncurled themselves from where they’d protectively wrapped themselves around the smaller, squishier, members of the digging crew. Unlike them, the beetles that they’d been using to dig had not survived the fall, and had insead acted as functional, if not very soft, cushions to soften their impact with the ground.

”Urrrgh… everyone good?” Bowser asked, as he rubbed his head and sat down his son, who murmured an affirmation, before getting another pair from Kamek and Rika, the latter of whom dropped her Beast form to do so.

_{“You guys okay down there!?”} Nadia’s echoed voice called down from far above, to which Bowser yelled ”Yeah! Takes more than a fall to do the koopa troop in!” in response.

As he pointed his focus back up, the rest of the troop focused it around.

”Well, it looks like we found something down here at least, but not our escaped F” Kamek noted as he glanced around the chamber, taking in its beauty ”Still, it makes a nice change from all the barren caves and the mining pit above”

Jr meanwhile, rather than admiring what was around him, was looking beyond, and assessing that there was ”He must have gone over there!” as he pointed across the maze of cliffs to an outcrop flanked by two carved pillars with pink crystals on them. If there was an end goal to the wall-less maze, it was there.

Rika seemed to agree, in that by the time Jr had made that assessment, she had run forwards, leapt out over one of the pits and then with a set of mid air jumps and grapples, landing on the other side. Not one to be left behind, Jr called ”Hey wait up!” before pulling his grapple worm out of his duffle bag, and using the strange bug to latch onto and pull himself to one of the lanterns. From there swung under it, grappled to a weird tree, formed a platform out of iron on it and then leapt into the void, summoning his vespikan strikers to hold up their massive cleavers to act as a quartet of stepping stones before he used one last grapple to finally clear the same jump Rika had just effortlessly made.

”Children wait!” Kamek called after them, but it was already too late, and so he was forced to float on after them with an ”Oh dear oh dear oh dear” leaving Bowser still shouting up at those still above, the king having entirely forgotten about the link pearls they all had.

”There’s a whole cave down here, wet and swampy but kinda nice I guess? Goes on for ages but there’s some kind of end goal over one end and-” he was calling up when he noticed, and only then realizing that the rest of the troop were moving down ”Gah, and now everyone’s run off, I gotta go!”

After those closing words, there came a little jingle of a bell as Bowser hooked one to his spiky collar and transformed into Meowser. In it he took his own singular running leap and launched himself off of the cliffside after the others. He missed the other side, but his claws dug into the cliff face when he hit it lower down, allowing him to clamber back up it and continue his pursuit.

This slapdash chase could have been a call for calamity had the environment contained many dangerous beasties, but fortunately for them all the cave system seemed to have avoided infestation by anything particularly dangerous. The little Barracuda Plants where only really a risk to a fool who stuck thief fingers in them, while Stalking Molds where much to slow to pursue, and one that did pull off an ambush more or less only delivered a hug while doing so. Indeed that might have been what it was trying to do rather than harm or kill. It was unrequited regardless however, and the mold found itself tossed off a cliff for its efforts.

A few obstacles floated through the air, but the oversized Rotfly Mutants mainly made for convenient grappling hook points rather than threats, as much as they tried, while the rather strange Glimmets drifting around where simply left in the dust.

Somehow the worst thing managed to be outcroppings of Cosmic Quartz which when approached emitted a multitude of overlapping sounds, like an entire universe of sound all both uninterpretable and somehow still distinct, which was not the sensory overload you wanted while platforming.

Well. those and some xeno grapes that gave a trying to restock his stamina Bowser a tummy ache.

Still, other than those nuisances, the lush environment and freedom of movement was a welcome change of pace from the claustrophobic black egg temple and somehow simultaneously claustrophobic and agoraphobic dream realm with its narrow platform hanging in an endless void.

Eventually however, it came to an end as the troop gathered up at the 2 crystal pillars Jr had identified as the exit, and found themselves looking down yet another long drop. It looked like a pitch-black hole in the green mists that hung over the swampy cavern floor down below, much deeper and much darker than the hole they’d tumbled down to get here. None had seen hide nor hair of F on their way through this beautifully bizarre marshland, and if the Consul truly had gone this way, jumping in after him seemed like an especially risky proposition. That aside, of course, staring down into such an unknown abyss could give practically anyone pause.

”Given how long that took, and that we did not see him at all, he must be far far ahead of us by now” Kamek pointed out as they, indeed, paused at the precipice.

”Yeah, but this is the only way he could have gone, and if he didn’t see us following, maybe he’s slowed down now. Or his lairs right down there, ready for looting” Jr retorted, more enamored with the latter prospect than the former, it seemed.

”Or he’s gonna ambush us like those monsters did when he dropped us down the start” Rika added, not really for either side, but more because it was the obvious tactical thing to do, especially with how they were now split from the others. Unfortunately she didn’t point out the latter issue, having assumed it obvious, and so it led to Jr declaring ”If it’s a trap, we should spring it! It’s the last thing he expects us to do” and her being entirely confident in accepting his take on the situation.

Bowser was about to agree with this when is belly rumbled, once again complaining about the xeno grapes, and so instead started to say ”We should wait for a bit-” but by that point ”It’s too late, she’s already jumped in”

Indeed Rika was already dropping down the hole, though admittedly doing so like a feather rather than a stone so they did have time to spare before she reached the bottom. Time enough for Jr to insist Kamek ”Make me a dragon so I can fly down!”

A few moments later, Kamek and Jr had joined Rika in her drifting down, while a doubly grumbling Bowser hung back for a few moments before simply leaping after them, following them down into the dark.

This time, they descended/fell for several seconds. They flew pasts the mists and into the darkness, finding themselves surrounded by waterfalls on all sides. Then they spotted water below them, and the next second splashed down into a clear, rather warm basin. When they surfaced, they found themselves somewhere new yet again, darker than the alien swampland but by no means too dark to see. And what they saw amazed them.



They’d landed in a still pond, its surface interspersed with patches of water lilies and lotus flowers. More interestingly, this pool seemed to be artificial in make, judging by the intricate, geometric marine tiles that lined its angular walls. Beyond lay a huge, misty cavern dominated by vast basins and surrounded by of well-preserved ruins, a sprawling array of towers, walls, aqueducts, and columns with no clear path. Waterfalls and rays of light descended from the vaulted ceiling high above, sustaining trees, ferns, and prehistoric foliage of all kinds. Beneath the surface teemed the aquatic creatures of antiquity, primeval organisms long thought extinct, from the anomalocaris to the helicoprion to the elasmosaurus, as well as equally ancient pokemon like Omastar and Kabuto . It was an incredible sight–and one utterly antithetical to the purpose of tracking down a singular runaway.

Bowser was the one who got the best look at these, as he promptly sunk like a stone down to the bottom of the pool below the drop, landing amidst a small garden of Lileep. They were quite spooked by the giant’s arrival, and began to waddle away in a panic as fast as their stubby legs could carry them.

A curious elasmosaurus too crane its neck over at the commotion, but it was dissuaded by a perfectly able to breath water Bowser growling a bubbly ”Don’t think about it” at it with his fists raised, ready to fight. Remarkably it decided to not indeed try it, and instead happily snapped up a poor lileep or two before they got to cover, leaving Bowser to start trudging his way up out of the water unmolested.

The rest of the troop, thanks to flight or sailing, had not taken a dunk like him, but that didn’t mean they weren't upset, Jr chief among them, the prince swooping around on drake back crying out
”Gahhh where’d he go. Over there? Or over there or?” in frustration.

”I believe it may be time to give up and turn back young master, lest we leave the others thinking we have run off on our own, never to be seen again” Kamek said, already preparing to teleport back to the group to let them know they’d lost the trail and would catch up.

His plan was scuppered when Rika asked ”Maybe we could ask whoever that is, peeking over that wall?” While pointing over to where an azure skinned individual was watching them some distance away. As she had said, they seemed to be peeking over the banister of a set of neary ruins, as only their head, adorned with long flowing hair and ribbons of some kind, and the red jewel necklace around their neck were visible.

”That is assuming they can speak-” Kamek attempted to reply, but Jr was already flying off at breakneck speed to try and talk to them by the time the mage was half way through his sentence.

The prince swooped over a number of large pokeball symbols embedded in the ground in the process of his flight, and then headed up towards the top layer of the ruins, calling out ”Hey you! Have you seen a-” only to pause, raise a fist to his chin as he tried to think of how to describe the person who’d they only known as wearing a mask, and landing only on ”-a jerk!”

Unfortunately, and oddly, when he looked back up the figure ducked down out of sight rather than respond. ”Hey I was talking to you” Jr called after them, landing atop the ruins a few moments later, glancing around in confusion as to where they had gone, until spotting them peaking around the corner at the bottom of a flight of stairs a few moments later.

”Hey!” he shouted down at them, only for them to duck away again, the prince missing the impish look on their face when they did so. Rather than be put off by this evasiveness, the prince instead dismounted and hurried down the stairs while demanding the figure ”Get back here, I just wanna talk!”

Turning the corner, he found the figure peeking around another. They must have been quite a large figure actually given the size of their head, but that was hardly a concern for Jr, who was easily baited into another quick goose chase til he lost sight of them a few more turns down various corridors.

”Oh come on, I just want to know if someone else came down that pit is that soooo much to-” a panting prince started grousing, only for a presence to loom behind him and whisper in his ear “Flutter!” causing him to jump back and spin around in fright. Then he got a second fright as he saw that the person had no body at all!

”Gah!” he cried out in alarm, scrambling back, but rather than attack the pokemon, for that was what this Flutter Mane was, simply curled one of its claw tipped tendrils below its mouth and laughed titteringly at him as it floated back, clearly highly amused by its prank.

”That was not funny” jr growled at it, but the flutter mane simply tilted its head, or rather body, to one side as if to ask “wasn't it?”

”No! …. Ok kinda a bit” he had to admit before insisting ”But now that you’ve had your fun, are you gonna answer my questions or not?”

“Flutter mane” the creature replied unhelpfully, prompting jr to groan ”Right. Pokemon” while rubbing his forehead, before snapping his fingers, grabbing one of his pokeballs and sending out Mimi so that she could ”Explain what the deal is Mimi”

“Mi!” the mon replied with a little salute, before turning to the other, much bigger, ghost and “mi mi mi” ing at them for a few moments to do so. The Flutter mane “flutter”ed in response, as the two established that not only had the flutter mane not seen some jerk of a plant guy come down that hole, it hadn’t seen anyone come down it at all in forever. They had seen a snouty bug man wandering around with bits of paper recently though, but he’d been super elusive and thus not very prankable, so Jr was the first bit of fun it had had in forever.

They also established that it was a she.

Communicating this back to jr wasn’t exactly smooth, but they got to Mimi shaking her head in response ”So it hasn’t seen anyone coming down the way we did at all?” fairly quickly despite that.

”Shoot” a disheartened Jr said while scuffing the ground with a foot in disappointment before complaining that ”well this has been a complete waste of time.” He groaned, sighed, offered a ”thanks or whatever” to the Flutter Mane and began the climb back up to his parked drake steed only to find the Flutter Mane following after him.

”Huh?” What do you want?” he asked, to which she just sort of bobbed to one side and then pointed at him unhelpfully.

”Is it a reward or something? Jeeze fine here” he guessed, before offering up one of the pokepuffs he still had on him, which the pokemon happily scarfed down, but did not make her go away. If anything it made her stick even closer when he tried to get moving again.

”Wait, you wanna come with? Is that it?” jr finally caught on just as they were about to go up the last set of steps, and that got him some up and down nods of confirmation. ”huh. I mean you are pretty neat. But are you tough enough to hang with my squad, huh?”

Conveniently, a chance for her to prove herself was already in motion, as when Jr, Mimi, and the Flutter Mane reached the top of the stairs, the sound of combat met them. Hurrying over to the edge, they found the rest of the troop battling an ambush of Brute Bonnets that Jr had flown over, the prince having not thought twice about their ‘disguises’ that only worked from that angle.

They were rather slow, but they’d popped up out of the ground around Rika when she’d come after him (Kamek had stayed back and kept watch for Bowser emerging from the water), and they were pretty hardy and nasty at that close range, particularly with their powerful payback punches that they delivered whenever she got in close to strike them.

”Rika! I’m coming!” Jr called out as he leapt onto his drake steed and took off, flying towards her as quick as it could go. He was entirely outpaced in this however by the Flutter Mane however, which casually raced forwards at blistering speeds that explained how she had so easily given him the runaround. She dived towards the bonnets, and then produced a pink flash from her necklace that scoured three of the dark creatures.

They retaliated by blasting dark green life draining energy beams up into the sky after her, but the nimble specter managed to evade many of these. In the process, she distracted the ones shooting at her, and gave Rika the space she needed to target the others with her own brutal punches. After that, with Jr and Mimi joining the fray, and Rika grappling up to the prince’s steed to get fully out of their more dangerous melee range, the remaining brutes hardly stood a chance.

By the time a dripping Bowser and worried Kamek caught up it was all over. The dark plant pokemon had been dispatched, Rika had collected their spirits, and Jr had a new team member ”I’m gonna call you… Peeka! Coz you're like a boo. Get it?”

”Well I see you are in high spirits once more young master, despite F having gotten away” the mage noted, before hoping he hadn’t jinxed things.

”Yeah… Peeka didn't see him come down, so I guess he musta gotten away some other way. She did see someone else though, right?” Jr replied, before nodding to the pokemon, who proceeded to use one of her claws to mimic a trunk, the other two miming scribbling on a bit of paper, and then the fourth to point over in a direction.

”Sounds like that map guy, yeah? Maybe we should check it out, in case there’s a way we can avoid going alllllll the way back up there” he said, to which the others agreed it was worth a look.

After a brief time spent traipsing through the prehistoric sanctum, aided greatly by the mobility of the party’s fliers, they picked up the curious cartographer’s trail. At that point his humming clued them in, and after that the searchers found Cornifer right away. Happy to see the adventurers again after so long, he offered a discount deal on his maps. For a very reasonable price, the Troop got maps not just of the Ancient Pools, but the Abyssal Forest above and Ash Lake nearby. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be any connections between them. As beautiful as this place was, a way forward wasn’t one of the secrets it offered.

As such they were forced to head back up regardless of their finding the map bug, which caused a lot of grumbling that was for sure. Bowser used a combo of cat claws and Carrie the trowlon striker to ascend, while Jr and Kamek flew and Rika did some absurd wall jumping and grappling combos to slowly ascend out of the pit all under her own power.

The two fliers went a bit ahead of the climbers so that they could get into radio range of the rest of the team all the way back up at their digging spot as soon as possible.

”Hello? Am I reaching anyone? We are all right and on our way back. We didn’t find F or even where he went unfortunately, he may have dug out of the chamber we found or had some other means of escaping from it, but we did get some more maps from Cornifer of Ash Lake along with the areas we have just been through. Also the young master made a new pokemon friend” Kamek began in a vague attempt to justify the delay, before offering ”If you’d like to go on ahead to Asgore, there’s no need to wait for us. We know the way ourselves after all, so we’ll catch up with you” which they’d at least not have that much trouble with if Kamek made use of his steed creation power, though he’d need to have a rest once they did catch up, that was for sure.

Speaking of catching up, the flying pair had a little bit of time to kill before the climbing pair caught up, time they promptly squandered picking, eating, and then freaking out as a result of the dark visions brought to life by the local Nightmare Pommes.

Between that and the prior alien berries, the troop swore the entire region off as straight up the worst of the bunch so far, which was most inconsiderate of them.

With the meeting on the upper deck of the Virgin Victory over with, Goldlewis could finally turn his thoughts away from the bigger picture and toward taking a well-earned break. His team’s chance encounter with James Shirogane left them reeling from the devastating news about Alcamoth, then inundated with information as everyone tried to fill in the gaps of their collective knowledge. Between establishing communications, investigating the sunken city, and reuniting the scattered Seekers, there would be a long road ahead of them just to reach the starting line for the next leg of this continent-spanning race. Goldlewis agreed with Sandalphon, however. No matter how much needed to be done, they could not achieve their goals while tired, hungry, and dispirited. Everyone needed some time to heal, and that time started now.

Moving at a leisurely pace, Goldlewis disembarked. The Virgin Victory was no ordinary vessel, and docking at a conventional wharf must have been quite the feat, but somehow the enormous warship floated had been moored close enough that those aboard could vault over the railing and land on the dock below–all without blocking the harbor. The wooden planks groaned in protest as the veteran’s weight crashed down on them, but they held, and after a sigh of relief Goldlewis pushed forward. The briny waters of the narrow bay lapped at the creaking, barnacle-crusted logs as he made his way toward solid ground. Though he felt Midgar looming at his back, its decrepit mass like a giant, dying beast somewhere behind him, the veteran did not look over his shoulder. Al Mamoon had been a much-needed change of scenery, but in the end it had just been more machinations and politics. After everything he’d been through, Goldlewis was glad to leave it all behind. He belonged on the front lines, fighting for what he believed in, not managing the masses from behind a desk. On to greener pastures, both figuratively and literally. With hope in his heart, the big man set foot in Port Meridian.

From here, Goldlewis could only catch glimpses of the rolling hills of farms and ranches beyond the buildings. The fresh air here was already doing him a world of good, and he longed for a peaceful stroll among the verdure. How long had it been since he breathed deep of petrichor, the rich smell of rain-soaked earth? Or stroked a horse, its hair fine and smooth beneath his palm? Or heard the contented lowing of cattle? He could feel a reservoir of childhood memories deep within, trickles leaking through the dam, threatening to burst through. Right now, though, he really wanted to sit down. He’d been on his feet all morning, and for someone his size, that tended to get old after a while. “I gotta park myself somewhere,” he said aloud, turning to the others. “Anyone want a bite to eat?”

Sandalphon had followed him from the warship, alighting much more softly upon the docks with the aid of Heavensent. Though Goldlewis tended to catch bystanders attention thanks to his sheer size, the rustic charm of his accessories offset that somewhat, but the archangel stuck out like a sore thumb just like the Virgin Victory. If her spotless white attire and strange eyes didn’t get the townsfolk whispering, her elaborate triple halo certainly did. Having never set foot beyond Midgar, though, she appreciated her new surroundings almost as much as Goldlewis did. “Please go ahead,” she told him, looking around the port. “Provided there is one, I would rather peruse the local market. I would be interested in purchasing fresh honey.”

Hearing that, and having learned about one of Sandalphon’s quirks over breakfast, Goldlewis couldn’t help but picture the archangel drinking the golden nectar straight from the jar. The thought made him smile. “That sounds mighty fine.” He looked around at the rest. “Feel free to wander ‘round folks, but keep your eyes peeled. If any o’ y’all run into trouble, call it in, and be ready to hustle back here. Understood?”

The Seekers separated, eager to make the most of their brief stay in Everdream Valley. Though the market promised fresh produce, Goldlewis wanted nothing more than to give his aching feet a rest, so he made a beeline for the nearest restaurants. He passed by a couple establishments, including the bustling Master Tavern, which was rife with wharf workers and deckhands fresh on the scene for their lunch breaks. On the way, he witnessed his own reflection in the glass facade of a storefront, and paused for a moment. Having settled into the routine of middle age, Goldlewis had changed very little over the span of many years, yet now the man staring back at him looked altogether strange. Already he knew that the spirit of Jack-8 had given him a substantial power boost, but it had also exaggerated the appearance of an already-remarkable individual. In a way he regretted changing, but now that he’d opened the floodgates, he could always course-correct. The spirit of Hank still burned in his pocket, waiting to be used. Figuring that the grizzled soldier’s normalcy would help offset his odd proportions, Goldlewis stepped into an alley and made his executive decision.



When the fusion concluded, Goldlewis re-examined himself. Though his outfit had lost some of its rugged simplicity, he noted with satisfaction that he looked more like a regular person, without compromising his intimidating stature nor strength. The flip-up glasses tickled his funny bone, but they by no means ruined the ensemble. With that out of the way, he resumed his trek down the road, quickly settling on a promising destination: the Pelican Inn.



Once inside, Goldlewis found himself in a beautiful little place that radiated vintage pub charm, from its heavy curved bar and elaborate taps to the portraits, trophies, and other knicknacks all over the walls. Though he did a double take at the union jack flags hanging around, he comforted himself with the knowledge that England probably didn’t exist in this world, and seated himself at a cozy corner table where he could keep his eyes on the door. Once the waitress came by to drop off a menu, he requested a soda and got busy reading.



The veteran’s confusion grew as he read over the menu. “Rushoar? Eik-thyr-deer!?” He shook his head. “No idea what these animals are.” He could only assume them to be analogs for pork, chicken, beef, and so forth. Since he could see other restaurant patrons enjoying their meals, however, and the pictures on the menu looked appetizing enough, Goldlewis decided to go with the flow for once. He put in an order for a Rushoar Hot Dog and Eikthyrdeer Loco Moco, with a side of Dumud Chowder. After that, he sank back in his chair, trying his best to relax.

---

After Goldlewis left, Sandalphon lingered by the docks for a moment longer. Though she by no means lied when she said that she wanted to visit the market in search of honey, something more important now concerned her. When the Seekers began to disperse to make whatever they could of the lush valley’s port town, she sought out a certain detective. As expected, she found Zenkichi and his daughter Akane joined at the hip. Thanks to Midna’s efforts, the two had been reunited, but to assume that all was well would be foolish. Since joining the team, Zenkichi had been separated from his daughter almost constantly, risking his life against some of the biggest threats the twisted city of Midgar had to offer. Sandalphon could hardly imagine what that looked like from poor Akane’s perspective, waiting alone (or in the care of total strangers) for hours and hours in anticipation of grim tidings, or the briefest of windows in which she could see her dad before he went off to risk his life once more. It hardly took a mind like Sandalphon’s to deduce that Akane’s mother was gone–a fact that made the poor girl’s situation even more crushing.

The archangel paused for a moment, observing them. To anyone else, her unblinking, dead-eyed stare, delivered from a remarkable height, would be off-putting if not downright intimidating, but she truly didn’t mean it that way. Right now, she was just trying to think of what to say. Her almost computational talent for perception and multitasking enabled her to coordinate combatants with effortless grace, tactically leveraging all available assets into a lethally efficient whole, but understanding the human heart challenged her mental faculties like nothing else. She remembered her conversation with Zenkichi from last night, about his experience with the ghost of Zone 09 and her victims, and their place within the bigger picture. He never said anything about his own child, but the way he spoke about the children spoke to great distress in his own heart.

So, while Sandalphon didn’t really know how to, she wanted to help.

For the second time that morning, she knelt down so that she could look a youth in the eyes. “Do not be afraid,” she said to Akane, her voice soft. “My name is Sandalphon. Though I have not known your father for long, I hope I can call him a friend. If possible, I would like to do the same for you.” She then stood back up to her full height, not quite as tall as her original form, but still tall enough to look down on Zenkichi. “Given recent events, everyone deserves to be at peace. But not everyone has a young child. With both of your permissions, I would like to keep you both company for a time, get to know you better, and help you both feel more at ease, if I can.”



When Bowser yelled up to the Troop’s concerned teammates that they were okay, Nadia stepped away from their caved-in hole, laughing helplessly as she rolled her eyes. After what they’d all just been through a little tumble couldn’t have been the end of the Koopa clan, but it relieved her to know that they landed safely, and it sounded like they’d stumbled into somewhere new, as well. “They really sturtled me,” she punned. “Can’t go two minutes without falling face-first into another adventure, I guess.” At this point, their nonstop hijinx really shouldn’t come as a surprise, but their knack for getting into trouble really was impressive. “Well, whatever. Everyone shellebrates in their own way, eh? Guess we’ll wait for ‘em. I sure don’t mind resting on my laurels a bit longer.”

Of course, the Temple of the Black Egg wasn’t the nicest spot to hang around in. Even without all the new decor, this here would have been solemn, spartan, and inhospitable, the air heavy with the weight of Hallownest’s history. The infection had done a real number on this place, and while the bright orange mood lighting wasn’t that bad, those renovations came packaged with disgusting tumors, stomach-churning smells, and sounds that could make the feral’s skin crawl. At least the death of the Radiance had kickstarted a clean sweep, quickly killing off the contagion and everything its mad light had possessed. After just a few minutes, the air was losing its funky foulness, which made Nadia feel a whole lot better.

As the air cleared, allowing the Seekers to catch a much-needed breather without choking on the stench of slime molds, the triumphant heroes exchanged a few words. Sectonia monopolized the conversation for a while, reviewing what little intelligence the team gleaned from F and adding her own insights, a healthy mix of verbatim repetition and far-flung speculation. Nadia didn’t dare interrupt her, instead producing the Free Lemonade from its dedicated pouch pocket. With the pitcher magically replenished, she slaked her thirst with gulp after gulp of the sugary-sweet, sensationally sour fruit juice, then gave a satisfied sigh as she wiped her lips with the back of her hand. Though she tried to pay attention, Therion’s whispers made her snicker. “As long as she doesn’t make a full of herself.” She offered her fellow thief the other half of the lemonade. “Here. Half full, to go along with your earful.”

In the end, F hadn’t given them anything definitive, other than which members of the alphabet soup of villains the Seekers needed to watch out for the most. If they ruled over this world alongside Galeem, Nadia figured they’d chew through them all sooner or later, but it was something. Right after that, though, the heroes got much more poignant information: the news that Jesse would be making herself scarce. “Aw, really?” Nadia moped, crestfallen to the point that her ears drooped down. While she hadn’t bonded with Jesse as much as, say, Primrose, the redhead had been a fixture of the group, resourceful, insightful, and dependable. Nadia liked having her around, to the point that the feral missed her throughout her absence yesterday, and she was sorry to see her go for good. “Well, I could only rush forward knowing you had my back,” Nadia replied once addressed. “Stay safe out there. When we head up north, I hope we can count on you to show up ‘Jess’ in time!” She perked up in order to send Jesse on her way with a smile. “See ya!”

With all that out of the way, they could focus on what to do next, and a vacation sounded heavenly. Primrose even floated a suggestion, hot springs in a place called Gerudo Town, which would’ve sounded amazing even without Nadia’s newfound inclination for water. Hopefully she’d get to share her downtime with Ace again. That locale seemed to evoke a strong response from Ganondorf, however, and the big bruiser immediately laid claim to the area. Nadia half-listened to his explanation of Gerudo customs, her focus mostly on Chucho. The canine apparition, bless his heart, seemed to be a complete coward who faded away at the first sign of trouble, but with the action concluded he’d reappeared to beg Nadia for attention. Naturally, the feral obliged. Nothing soothed the soul like petting a pup after all, corporeal or otherwise. He lay on his back with, and as she scratched and rubbed his belly, she could feel her stress draining away. She only looked up when Ganondorf urged Primrose to hurry and guide him to Gerudo Town. “What’s the rush?” she asked, her tone relaxed. “Gotta wait for the Koopas anyway. We’ll get there when we get there. Maybe you could wait to seize power ‘til we’re done with the hot springs, in fact.”

Before Bowser and company returned, however, someone else showed his face: Osvald. “Oh, it’s you!” Nadia said, her brows shooting up in surprise. Given what happened to the others who’d been separated from the Seekers, she had feared that a similar fate had befallen Osvald. Though her first instinct was to rattle off something like ‘look who the cat dragged in’ or ‘you missed all the action’, neither felt appropriate for expressing how his unexpected survival made her feel. “...Glad you made it!”

She reported the team’s victory over the Radiance, happily sharing the good news that the heroes’ subterranean stint would be over very soon. Of course, their departure depended on the return of the Koopa Troop, and as the minutes passed by she began to wonder just what was taking them. Before too long, though, everyone’s linkpearls rang with the sound of Kamek’s voice. Nadia grinned. “Yeah, I hear you! What’s up?”

While the Troop failed to hunt down F, the news that they found Cornifer was a real pick-me-up. With all the rush yesterday, Nadia hadn’t gotten another chance to track him down, and she was glad to hear that the kindly cartographer escaped the infection as well. Kamek finished by telling the others to go ahead, and that the Troop would catch up. Nadia jumped to her feet. “Sounds good to me! Say goodbye to the Under everyone, let’s below this joint!” She took off running, only to slide to a stop after a few steps as her head swiveled a hundred and eighty degrees. “What, which way are we going?”

The team quickly put together a plan. Assuming that an ascent back through the Chasm would be a prohibitively arduous task, the best way back would be the Stagmer-line, and the nearest station they knew of lay in the Home of Tears. “We gotta go through that awful basement again?” Nadia groaned. “Not to mention that freaky flesh-scape! The less I think about that blood river, the better!” Luckily, Kamek had suggested an alternative: Ash Lake. Without Rubick, the Hive courageous Knight, or the Troop, only Primrose knew the way both to and through it, so the Seekers set off with the dancer in the lead.

Primrose guided the others down through the Crossroads, past the spot where Nadia met Cornifer originally, away from the wooden passages that led to the Basement, and through a series of tunnels. A fork in the road took them away from the Ancestral Mound and into a large dripstone cave, its floor dotted by pools of noxious, sludgy muck and choked by foul weeds. Bus-sized Goams erupted suddenly and without warning from the earth, their spiky burr-coated shells nigh impenetrable, On the far side of the huge cavern, part of the rock face gave way to a protruding wall of wood that stretched from floor to ceiling, with several hollow roots twisting out from it to rest like primordial serpents in beds of grimy stone. Even without a strong presence from the infection, conditions here seemed worse than the last time Seekers came through. Grotesque cragspiders dragged themselves between the protruding nodules of rock, their vestigial mosquito wings abuzz as their loathsome eyes searched for prey they could roast alive with heretical flame. Even worse were the bulbous wall huggers whose engorged, protuberant masses hung just out of sight, with gossamer tendrils drifting down to snare unlucky prey. The mire horrified Nadia, grievously offending the part of her that detested stagnant, unclean waters, and once Primrose directed the team toward the enormous tree trunk she hustled over as fast as her legs could carry her.

From there, everyone could proceed through the hidden doorways and carefully descend through the twisted boughs of the great hollow, dappled by inexplicable white light shining down through the thorny briars above. The route downward was treacherous, composed entirely of winding and in some cases very thin branches. To make matters worse, a handful of mushroom people and reptilian basilisks lurked around the tree’s innards. Even for those possessed of flight, it was slow and tricky going to reach the exit at the very bottom. Nadia made ample use of the walls, sinking her claws into the aged wood as she climbed with catlike dexterity. As demanding as this trip was turning out to be, she knew that rest and relaxation lay at the journey’s end, and pushed onward. Eventually, the Seekers reached what looked like the bottom of the tree and dropped down onto a bed of moist, sandy soil. With no sign of the enormous fanged crab that rested here when last Primrose came, the team could follow the blue-green light through a large gap in the trunk, and trudge out into the biggest, most breathtaking space that the Under had to offer.



Before them spread a vast and mystical space, maybe too expansive to even call a cavern, especially since it lacked any visible walls or ceiling. Instead it stretched away into the distance until the haze rendered all a murky bluish fog, and upward to a layer of pale green clouds. The trunks of countless other unfathomably tall trees just like the one they’d just emerged from, rising like the columns of some primeval cathedral up from tranquil dark waters through the cloud layer and into the roof beyond. That water formed an immense, glass-smooth lake, and the team stood upon a large ridged bank of sand that wound a serpentine path from this trunk toward another a half-mile or so away. Nadia marveled at the impossible vastness of its grandeur, so stark a contrast from the filthy, execrable Dripstone Cave. If the Home of Tears lay below this place, was this the source of its endless rain? No wonder the soaked-through city never went dry.

There were signs of life here, all of it just as strange and archaic as this place itself. Clams with teeth clung to the bark of the giant tree trunks beneath the surface, while in the shallows of the sand bank organisms known as ganoderma grew like underwater flowers. Googly-eyed shellfish both large and small called this place home, weathering the glares of ornery barnacles as they trawled for food alongside oblivious trilobites. All those creatures quailed at the sight of the hostile five-legged clams that stalked these forlorn shores, their enormous maws laden with the slimy skulls of their past victims. If all that inhabited the narrow sandbanks that seemed to form Ash Lake’s only land, however, one could scarcely imagine what lurked beneath the glassy, dark surface of the water. Deep down, frightful glimmers could occasionally be seen, making Nadia think twice about unnecessary water-skating. At the other end of this sank bank towered another archtree, and according to Primrose, a pipe in its vicinity would take everyone to the Home of Tears.

There was one other matter to attend to, though. Primrose had also mentioned an ‘old king’ who possessed knowledge that might help the Seekers on their journey. If he’d refused to share it until after the Guardian’s defeat, Nadia figured it must be worth their while. As the team trekked along the sand bank, they negotiated a temporary split. While the rest forged onward into the Home of Tears to attend to anything that might preclude a ride back to Dirtmouth, Primrose volunteered to meet with Asgore about whatever it was he’d kept from heroes who’d yet to prove their worth, and share whatever she learned. Nadia couldn’t suppress her curiosity. “I kinda want to hear whatever it is for myself,” she admitted, scratching her cheek. “You know what, you guys go ahead, I’ll stick with our dancer. We’ll meetcha at King’s Station afterward and share all the As-gory details.”

As the group was preparing to split up, again, the previous split rejoined them. Riding across the dunes on beetle back came the troop, kicking up sand as they galloped over the seekers the rest have just traipsed over. Just above them flew Jr’s latest addition to his poke-team, the primal pokemon known as Flutter Mane to explorers of area zero, and as Peeka to the prince.

They slowed a bit as they approached, the trio of royals calling out greetings while a rather pooped looking Kamek only managed a little wave. Drained of mana from maintaining the 4 steeds all the way through their journey, the Mage dismissed them as soon as they caught up and then proceed to support himself using his broom as he said, tiredly, but with more than a hint of pride; ”and here we are, just as I said we would be”

”We miss anything?” Jr asked as his new spirit hovered around above everyone’s heads, getting a good look at them all, before adding ”You about to go see that old goat guy?”

”Some of us," Therion replied. "I for one can't wait to get topside. I'm gonna go on ahead, find the station."

”I for one could use a break, so if we could stop by the tree, I shall takes seat and try and absorb what information I can” Kamek said in response to this news, prompting the rest of the troop to say they’d come along as well.

”That reminds me,” Ganondorf brought up now that the Troop had returned, ”I believe it would be wise if we create for us a quick way to return to the flame clock in Holograd, as we may need to return to it in the future. But that can wait for now.”

Therion's arms were crossed beneath his poncho and his tail swished back and forth. He had spent most of the trek to the lake in feline form for easier traversal, but now he was back to being human. He was looking forward to leaving the Under behind like he'd said, but he also knew a deluge of water awaited in the city below - which he wasn't looking forward to. Rather than stick with the group he figured he'd get through it as fast as possible and wait somewhere secluded in a hopefully more dry train station. If his friend had been planning to see this mysterious king alone he would have reconsidered splitting, but at least one person had already mentioned sticking around up here. Primrose and Ms. Fortune could definitely handle themselves, so Therion was less inclined to say. Plus he was hardly interested in whatever revelation the king was cooking up - if it was something so important that it would directly impact the team, then they'd all hear about it later.

The thief didn't spend much more time there, moseying toward the pipe that Primrose had indicated earlier. The dancer herself gave him and anyone leaving with him a casual wave before turning back to the rest.

As tempting as it was to follow the thief’s lead, Ganondorf had already resolved to at least hear what this other king had to say before he returned to the surface. Or at the very least get Jr to create one of his warp paintings at Castle Holograd. Only after these things would he finally be satisfied enough to leave the Under.

The path that Primrose retraced was rougher than last time, but they'd all made it in one piece. She felt a little anxious, but it wasn't about to stop her from getting answers.

"Shall we?" she said.

”Yes.” Ganondorf responded, while the Troop mostly nodded in agreement

As the Seekers approached the tree, the sand underfoot changed. It became softer, darker, and colorless, not minuscule grains of silica but powdery flecks of carbon, piled higher and higher. Ascending the dune from which the ancient trunk protruded, the inquirers couldn’t help but kick the stuff into the air with every step, and as it settled on their clothes and skin a mild scent of acrid smoke suffused them. Nadia’s sense of smell might not be much better than the average human’s, but it didn’t take a bloodhound to tell what she was trudging through. “It’s ash,” she murmured, craning her neck upward. This tree, though unimaginably colossal in its own right, had clearly been burned at some point. Its charred, ruined upper reaches fell well short of Ash Lake’s cavernous ceiling, while the other archtrees penetrated through the roof. But Nadia still felt unsettled, unable to put aside the dread that gnawed at her. In this world, there were more ways to get ash than burning wood.

Still the Seekers pushed forward, approaching the crack in the trunk’s exterior through which they could enter. When they finally crested the sooty hill, they found the periphery of the great tree overgrown with small, low-lying bushes. Despite the poor soil, the prickly dark green tangles seemed to be thriving, with abundant yellow flowers in full bloom. The opening in the hollow, much taller than it was wide, still offered sufficient width for the visitors to enter two breast. Within, a bed of ash formed a shallow basin, almost completely blanketed by the flowering gorse plants. Around the center stood seven simple, cylindrical altars in hexagonal pattern, each laden with an instrument of destruction so masterfully made and visually impressive that they could all be legendary weapons in their own right: a fanged daylight greatsword, a lance of purefying light, an insectoid longbow that gleamed like emerald, a decorated staff of enlightenment, a greataxe hewn from stone dragonscale, a massive, overgrown shield of solid gold, and a thunder-crackling hammer. On the far side of the hollow, the ashes rose into a sharp incline, hundreds of feet tall and impossible steep. Atop this pale mountain stood a lonely throne, turned away from the hollow’s entrance and toward a gigantic hole in the back wall, looking out across the still, dark waters of Ash Lake. The sight left Nadia with a vague sense of awe.

In the very center of the imposing scene, dramatically positioned in its natural focal point, sat the exiled king. He looked tall and quite broad-shouldered, if his huge pauldrons were any indication, but a dark cloak, covered in the wear and tear of battle, shrouded his whole body. Only his head could be seen, his goatish, white-furred visage wreathed in shaggy hair and crowned with hooked horns. The former king of monsters sat with meditative stillness, his eyes closed as his chest slowly rose and fell.

The scene looked quite the same as the last time the Seekers had been there. Primrose didn't comment on the weapons or the ash. She had already come to the conclusion that they were the remnants of people that had come to challenge the monster king, but she didn't necessarily want to put her companions any more on guard. It was for the same reason that she didn't bring up the clock nearby - given that Asgore was alive and idle, she didn't think it likely that F had shown up here for it. They weren't looking for a fight.

Bowser did however mention the clock, but only to comment that it was a ”tough nut to crack that thing. Smashed it right out of the tree giant style, and not a scratch on it”

Ganondorf’s eyes narrowed slightly. So there was a clock here as well? Interesting. Something he’d have to remember for the future.

Primrose stepped forward, eyeing the hole in the wall for a moment before she called out to the king. "Asgore?"

His eyes opened immediately, betraying no startlement. Nadia wondered if the old king had really been in some sort of meditative trance, or just happened to be sitting there with his eyes closed, unable to be at peace. Though his white fur somewhat disguised the creases etched into his face and the sunkenness of his eyes, he looked terribly tired. Primrose mentioned that he’d been press-ganged into unwilling service for the Consuls for a long time, and looking at the old goat now, Nadia could definitely believe it. She already felt bad for disturbing him, her uneasiness not helped by the location’s pronounced intimidation factor.

It took a second longer than it should have for him to reply with a weak smile. “You’re back. I was hoping I’d see you again.” His gaze slowly turned to Nadia. “Brought a new friend, eh? Or maybe an old friend, just new to me. If you made it back, does that mean y’all did what you came for…?”

”It is done, and as a bonus so too is the infestation” Kamek confirmed before saying ”Now if you don’t mind, I shall be taking a seat as well” before doing just that, plopping down onto the ground to rest his old bones.

Finally, with noticeable reluctance, the king’s eyes settled on Ganondorf. They hold no warmth whatsoever. His expression held notes of annoyance and resignation, but more than anything else, Asgore stared at the warlord with disappointment. He sighed, his head drooping down. “You again.”

The warlord in question held no particular expression either. Not that it would be seen behind the shadow of his open helmet, ”...Pardon?” he finally asked after a long pause, ”Tis true that my reputation doth precede me. But I hath no recollection of meeting thee.” Although Ganondorf did have to admit that Asgore looked an awful lot like a certain other person that he had met. But surely that didn’t mean anything, or so he thought.

“Well, you wouldn’t. I s’pose I oughta make sure.” Asgore’s right hand pushed through his draped mantle, and as he held it up he turned it so that the back of his closed fist faced the newcomers. His eyes were hard, his focus unwavering. “The Triforce. Show it to me.”

Ganondorf allowed himself to smile a bit behind the shade of his helmet. Silently he held up his fist and revealed the glowing triangle that branded the back of it. Even in spite of the spirits he had acquired, the Triforce had remained unchanged. Finally, after a seemingly eternal pause he spoke. ”Pray, tell.” he said, ”What crime hath I done to thee, a King I hath never even heard of until this day?”

Nadia swallowed nervously, her gaze flickering between the two royals. What should have been a peaceable, even amicable encounter had taken an unexpected and very bad turn. She hadn’t considered the possibility of beef between Asgore and one of their own, though at the same time, the old goat’s hostility came across as confusing -bordering on unreasonable- given Ganondorf’s testimony, provided he wasn’t lying. “The heck’s going on?” she muttered.

Of course, Asgore didn’t hear her. His focus lay on Ganondorf, and despite the warlord’s changes the golden sigil on his hand told him everything he needed to know. “I am no king,” Asgore rumbled. The hint of down-to-earth friendliness he’d displayed earlier had evaporated completely. “Unlike you. Are you not the King of Evil? Born to kill. To conquer, to destroy, to…antagonize. Maybe ‘you’ have yet to slaughter innocents and topple nations…”

His eyes shifted downward to the twin greatswords sheathed at Ganondorf’s hip, their elaborate bronze crossguards unmistakable. “But it’s only a matter of time. I see you failed to heed my warning.” His armor clanked softly as he rose from the ground, reciting familiar words. “Here lie the ashes of the evil king who brought doom to this once-great city. Let these blades stand as a reminder that those who walk the path of evil will always be brought to justice.” At his full height, and quietly menacing, Asgore made for a daunting sight. “A bad seed will always be just that. Whenever it grows a weed in my garden, the only thing to do is pull it out.”

The Gerudo remained completely unfazed as he lowered his fist. He was not going to be intimidated, ”Aye, ‘tis true. he confirmed, ”But thou still hast not named any actual crime that I hath committed against thee.” he added, not allowing himself to show any anger or even malice at that time.

He kept his tone even. He'd been in royal courts enough times to know how to properly conduct himself. And he knew that right now, he needed to show that he was not the aggressor here. ”My quarrel is not with you nor yours.” Ganondorf said flatly, ”I come to thee only to learn more about my real enemies. Nothing more and nothing less. If there is to be war here, then it shall be you who ignites the flame, not I.”

“Yeah, hang on, let’s not fight just yet, please?” Nadia held up her hands placatingly, though she’d also taken a couple steps away from Ganondorf just in case. “We just came to ask you about something. Something you didn’t tell Primrose last time, right?”

Asgore frowned at her, clearly not pleased with her alliance with Ganondorf, but he had yet to make a move.

Being surprised at the animosity, Primrose had kept quiet and just watched. Out of all the "villains" composing their group, she trusted Ganondorf the least. However, what the dark lord said about 'real enemies' rang true. He hadn't betrayed the Seekers this entire time, clearly willing to work with whoever necessary to get to the target of his ire - this being Galeem. She didn't forget that he'd been imprisoned when he was found though, and his earlier comment about staking his claim in Gerudo Town didn't exactly sit right with Primrose no matter how destined it was for him. All in all it made Ganondorf a complicated ally, but for now an ally all the same. And besides, if he was really so dangerous then why had Asgore seen fit to imprison him, rather than add his ashes to the collection here?

Primrose took a deep breath after Ms. Fortune's words and stepped forward even more. Though it seemed Asgore's issue was with Ganondorf only, she splayed her own hands open peaceably as well.

"She's right. You promised to tell us what you knew about the true state of this world. As Kamek said, we've defeated that source of the Infection, the monster the Consuls were protecting inside the temple, and claimed its spirit. One of those Consuls, P, has also met his end by our hand." She didn't mention F, frustrated as they all were by his latest escape. "So it is done. Did you not feel it when the Guardian died?"

After a moment, Asgore allowed Primrose’s news to distract him. “You’ve done good. Just as I hoped. And I do mean to make good on my word. Had this whole little set-up going to ease you folks into it.” He scowled at Ganondorf. “But with him here, that ship has sailed. I’ll still tell you, of course. But the lesson plan’s a little different.” He extended an accusatory finger. “What crimes, you ask? Well for starters, where’s my wife? Where’s Toriel? Whenever I wander the Under, I make sure to check in on her. But when I went yesterday, I found ashes and broken shackles.”

Asgore hung his head in sorrow. “I should have killed you when I had the chance. But violence is a vicious cycle, and I wanted to end it. Figured that if I spared you, maybe things would turn out different this time.” The old king laughed mirthlessly. “All these years, and I’m still the same old fool.” He lifted his head, his expression woeful. “There’s no escaping what we are.”

Slowly, he looked between his various visitors. “So you want to know, huh? Well, I hope you’re ready.” Asgore nodded at Ganondorf. “I know he’ll do bad things ‘cause he did bad things, and he only stopped ‘cause I’m the one who stopped him.” He stared at the warlord, his gaze cold. “Our battle in Holograd. You fought something fierce. But by then, my Level of Violence was way too high.” His eyes drifted toward the holy lance, Gae Assail. “I cut you down, and I left your swords as a reminder that evil will always receive its just reward. And yet, here you are.” He chuckled. “Tell me something, folks. You ever dream…of dying, horribly?”

Something about the way he said it sent a chill down Nadia’s spine, making the hairs on her neck rise. She breathed in sharply, still as a statue.

“When you go to sleep,” Asgore continued. “How d’you know you’re the same person as when you wake up?” He shrugged. “Memories, right? And if you didn’t remember, wouldn’t every day be your first?” Once again he paused, clearly having some trouble finding the right words. “Do you all think you’re the first? The original? The bonafide one-and-only you? Well…what about those awful dreams, of losing lives you never lived?” His voice grew quiet. “What if I told you they were all completely true?”

He stared at the Seekers of Light. “Well, I hate to break it to you. You’re not the originals. Not even close. Those dreams, they aren’t just your imagination. They’re little traces of your past lives. Bugs in the system. We live, die, and live again. Over decades. Centuries. Countless lives, recycled over and over again, for ever. And ever.”

Asgore took a deep breath. “That’s why our timeframes don’t line up. That’s the World of Light. A wheel spinning in place for perpetuity, stuck fast between past and future. The Endless Now.”

”You, uh, you sure those aren't just other versions of us from other words? Because I’ve already punched another me in the face this week for being a dumb jerk. And a Guardian” Bowser asked, before also pointing out ”also it can't have been that long, because of Kirby. Galeem pulled a cheap shot on us, the lil guy got away, and then he showed up here a week ago. And he’s a hungry lil guy so he can’t have been traveling that long”

Though Asgore didn’t know what Bowser meant by ‘other versions’, he said nothing. He had no interest in arguing. The others’ acceptance hadn’t been part of the bargain; only the truth.

While Bowser questioned Asgore, Primrose had gone quiet again. Well, wasn't this a mess? So Ganondorf had killed the old king's wife, and in his anger Asgore had dropped his information on them all at once like a bomb. Primrose wasn't sure if easing into something like that would have made it any easier to take though. It was the truth as Asgore knew it though, and the dancer stood, statuesque with drawn brows and a hard expression, as she parsed the information. Dreams... she hadn't had any like that, but Therion had confessed to her just this morning that he had. The archangel Robin Goodfellow's rambling, the regret that Confessor Jiji conjured, even the words of the Organization member that had helped them seemed to fit the picture Asgore painted. Even so, Primrose hoped it wasn't really true.

By now, Ganondorf was scowling beneath the shadow of his helmet. Who did this whimpering excuse for a goat-man think he was? Spouting off absolute nonsense about dreams being memories of past lives, and somehow using that as his justification for imprisoning him? And oh yes, it seemed that this Asgore had been the one who personally shackled Ganondorf to that black egg. The warlord’s fists both became clenched and trembled with rage.

”You…” he said in a low, bestial tone. He marched right up to Asgore and fixed his malicious and hateful gaze squarely on him. But he still did not draw any weapons. At least… not yet. ”Thou art the one, who shackled me?” he demanded, his tone remaining low and full of malice, ”For crimes thou claimeth I committed in a time that I conveniently hath no memory of?”

And then his booming voice exploded, ”Thou expect me to believe thy drivel? With no proof?” Ganondorf demanded, ”Thou would command thine own wife to execute me instead of being man enough to come down and do it thyself? That is thine own fault! The price you pay for your sniveling cowardice!” and then he lowered his tone once again, almost to a whisper. ”Dread the coming days, Coward King. For after I hath slayed Galeem and his Consuls, I shall come for THEE next.”

The silence that followed Ganondorf’s tirade was heavy, the tension unbearably thick. Once the warlord had his fill of yelling and threats, Asgore began to speak.

“Fine. If that day comes, I will add you to the Clock, as well.” Asgore turned around. “None of our lives matter, not one whit.” He sighed. “In truth…I’ve seen Toriel come and go so many times. I can’t pretend I’m not numb to it all. And after all I’ve done, I can’t pretend to have any principles, either. I’ve never made the right call. Not even once.” He didn’t know it, but Ganondorf’s expression returned to its original blank state, his anger now deflated.

”We’re not so different, it seems.” the warlord replied, ”I hath no more claim to having principles than thou.” he finally admitted, ”Maybe I did once upon a time, but… that was a lifetime ago.” For all his insults toward Asgore, it didn’t change the fact that he was able to relate to him, if only for this fleeting moment.

In the quiet that followed, Nadia slowly let out the breath she’d been holding. For a moment, a fight between the two kings felt like such an absolute certainty that she’d unwittingly braced herself, her every muscle tense. With the situation seemingly defused, Nadia sighed in relief. Contending with Asgore’s words was tough enough.

”I say we destroy them.” Ganondorf suggested, ”F toldeth us that those Clocks give the Consuls their long lives. So their destruction would surely deal them a crippling blow.”

The thought of ever allying himself with Ganondorf in any capacity made Asgore scoff. “Clock’s out back,” he grumbled. “Knock yourself out.”

”Yeah if I can’t do it you sure can’t either” Bowser commented, full of self sure pride, before adding ”But sure, have a swing so I can rub your nose in your failure afterwards”

”And how, pray tell, did you go about it?” Ganondorf asked the Koopa King with an incredulous tone, ”Let me guess: thou puncheth’ed it, very very hard?” then he shook his head, ”Nothing is truly indestructible you fool. Everything has its weaknesses. The flame clocks are no exception. ‘Tis only a matter of possessing the right tool. All I need is but to find that tool.”

”Yeah, but you don’t have it, do you?” Bowser retorted with surprising smoothness, before adding that ”the magic doomsday device has a magic weakness, big whoop, not exactly a super smart take there. Seen it a dozen times” because what the Koopa King lacked in smarts, and wisdom, and general intelligence really, he sometimes could make up with raw experience.

"Oh enough," Primrose finally said, touching a hand to her temple. She narrowed her eyes at both the king of Koopas and the king of evil. "Go outside if you must continue."

Then she looked back at Asgore. "As awful as it is, what you've said... is believable. But..." she faltered, unsure what she wanted to ask. "...how do we... come back? If you know?"

The old goat seemed markedly happier once Primrose sent the bickering royals outside to take a crack at the Clock, leaving him with just her, Kamek, and Nadia for company. After turning back around, he replied. “That’s something that puzzled me for a good while. Sometimes I’d leave a ghost town, then come back the next day to find it full of people. Or somebody I’d never seen before would show up while my back was turned. After a long time, I came to believe it’s got something to do with this symbol.” He walked over and took the Gae Assail lance from its altar, then used its tip to draw in the ash. “It’s everywhere. At least one in every settlement with a Flame Clock, if you look hard enough. Always on a square tile. I’ve messed around with ‘em, but there’s nothing special about ‘em, or anything hidden beneath.” After a moment, he finished his etching. For the most part it looked like nothing more than a sun, but a slight bent to all its outward flares gave it the fleeting impression of some kind of spiral.



“...Huh,” Nadia said after a moment. She really didn’t know what to make of all this, but for some reason, she didn’t feel as bothered by the possible revelation as she maybe ought to be. Asgore’s secret inspired worry in Primrose, downplay from Bowser, and disbelief from Ganondorf, but for whatever reason the feral found herself looking on the bright side. “Well…not doubting you or anything, but if all that’s true, it’s kinda…fine? With me? Maybe even a relief. It sounds like there’s a real possibility that even if we fall, we’ll get another chance down the road.”

“Without any memory of your current life,” Asgore interjected, a little incredulous about Nadia’s attitude. “Not to mention you’ll come back ‘storied’, and have to break free all over again.”

Nadia flipped up her hands and shrugged, a carefree smile on her face. “Hey, better than nothing!”

Primrose let out a ghost of a laugh. That attitude was so very "Nadia Fortune," as the dancer had come to know her.

"I'm glad all this doesn't bother you so much. Truly." She told Ms. Fortune. She didn't look at the other woman though, just stared at the image Asgore had drawn, committing it to memory. "It doesn't sit as right with me."

But maybe the feral's positivity would rub off on her. For now though, Primrose felt a headache coming on. There was so much to think through. And she burned with curiosity about what had happened to her since being spirited away to this world in the first place. How had she died the previous time? What memories had she made that were now lost forever? Now I understand why he thought to keep this information from us.

Primrose grew quiet again for a few moments, still thinking. Then she blinked up at Asgore.

"...as unsettling as it was to hear, thank you for telling us all the same," she said.

The old goat just grunted. He’d known from the beginning that this conversation wouldn’t do anyone any good, but he’d fulfilled his word, for better or worse. A not-so-small part of him still itched to kill Ganondorf, but he knew better than anyone that such an action would be petty self-satisfaction, and not solve anything. But if he had helped the Seekers bring ruin to the Under’s Guardian, and he intended the Consuls to share in her fate, then maybe this motley crew really could tear it all down.

“...Go,” Asgore said after a moment. “And dismantle this wretched world. Good luck.”

Nadia saluted him, and after a glance at Primrose to make sure she was good to go, turned to leave.

”Well, that was not at all restful” Kamek groaned as he massaged his temples and then got back to his feet, burdened now with cursed knowledge along with his general fatigue.

”I still don’t get the kirby thing though” Bower grumbled as he too turned to go, prompting another groan for Kamek, as he then attempted to explain how traveling fast enough to outrun light itself would affect how a person experienced time. They had barely gotten started, however, before they reached the warp pipe leading down to the Home of Tears. Ganondorf joined them, having been unable to so much as scratch the fallen Flame Clock, and together the Seekers descended into the city of dark waters.

Rika and Jr ended up going with Theon rather than hanging around to listen to whatever Asgor was going to go on about. Kamek would no doubt fill them in on it later, and both of them felt like their time could be better spent hanging around town to see if there was anything fun to do/get while they waited. Like milkshakes. Or toys. Or cool weapons.

To get to the city all they needed to do was go down the pipe near the base of the tree, which should have been a non issue. Except when Jr stepped on it, and remembered that it came out at the bottom of a pool of water, he felt a sudden and unexpected spike of fear.

”Huh what?” the prince said as he found himself pausing before stepping in, not anywhere close paralyzed by fear, but certainly slowed enough that had to stop anyway out of confusion as to why he was feeling that way. ”Why am I…. What is the… oh come on Omori are you scared of water too!?”

That was the only explanation. It certainly couldn't have been Undyne he inherited this fear from, that would have been silly, seeing as she was a fish.

As he was seething on top of the pipe, the prince actively glowing red with an aura of anger, he was actively stopping anyone else from going down it, which was a touch of a problem, and one that caused Rika, next in line, to ask ”You ok? Are we not going?”

”I’m fine I’m just going to prove a point real quick” Jr growled in response as he hopped off of the pipe and matched down to the edge of the water that surrounded the sandbank they were on. Then he took a casual step into it without any concern. ”See! This is fine! Stop being such a wuss” he told himself, even if he was phrasing his ire like Omori was here in spirit and it was all his fault.

He was a little confused as to why he hadn’t felt anything at all from that little dip however, and so took another step into the water. Then another and another till he was up to his neck, and then finally when he moved to move his head under the water, and specifically his mouth and nose, that was when the fear came back, and his mind conjured unbidden images of the water flowing into those orifices.

He stood there for a moment, then violently dunked his head under the water and then came back up and declared ”I’m in control here Omori, not you. Me!”

He then glanced up to find Rika floating on the water’s surface next to him, looking down at him with a mix of confusion and concern. Mostly confusion. No one had ever thought to tell her what a phobia was after all.

”What? I’m good! Omori was just scared of drowning or something, but I’m better than that!” jr insisted as he stomped back on to dry land, water dripping off of him.

”Oh. Well. I mean. Drowning is bad so why wouldn’t you be afraid of it?” she asked as a result of the prior mentioned ignorance.

”I mean he must have been, like, super scared of it. Drowningphobic or something. Freaking out if it ever even seemed like it was going to happen, which’d just make stuff worse” Jr replied, finding himself trying to fill in a gap he wasn’t exactly sure how it worked either. He just hadn’t been paying attention whenever a lot of things were explained to him, making him rather the poor teacher for this kind of thing.

”Huh. Ok. So. Would you need me to carry you up through the water at the other end of the pipe or…?” she asked, but jr shot the idea down, biting back that ”I’m fine! I’m fine. I can do this. I’m tough, not some stupid kid like him”

”Oh… Oh wait, can’t you just turn into Undyne so you straight up can’t drown?” she asked, an idea which gave him pause, and snapped him out of his angry state. The prince raised a finger, lowered, it raised it and then finally said ”No, because I can do this, she’s in heavy armor she she can’t swim and also the town would probably freak out about their guard captain coming back from the dead or going un-missing and that would just be this whole thing we’d have to deal with”

Rika gave a sad little ”Oh…” at her idea being shot down, and Jr was still in a bit too much of a mood to tell her how it was a good idea in general.

At that point they were back at the pipe. There, Jr took a deep breath, then let it out, before stepping up onto it and finally, after another moment of hesitation, descending. Despite having been told she didn’t need to help him, Rika descended quickly after him, just to be safe.



A few moments later they popped out the other side in quick succession, entering into the underwater race track who’s raving searchlights had fortunately already activated thanks to those who had gone on ahead while the prince dallied on the beach.

Immediately fear flared in the mind of the puffy cheeked prince as the water surrounded him. But it was fine, all he needed to do was swim up. He’d done this before. He’d be fine.

Unfortunately last time he had not had an arm covered in metal tattoos, which not only weighed him down as he started to breaststroke up towards the surface, it also bled heat like nobody’s business. As he rose towards the surface, and his air began to go down, so too did the fear rise, and his temperature drop. His right arm rapidly became numb, stiffening, unable to aid in his swim to the surface. Panic started to build, the prince’s controlled swim becoming increasingly frantic.

He wasn’t going go make it, he wasn’t going go make it HE WASN’T GOING TO MAKE IT

Or so his mind began to scream as he floundered, oh so close to the surface and yet oh so far, only for an arm sporting a massive gauntleted hand to reach up from the depths and grab him around the chest. This sparked one last moment of panic before he was suddenly launched clear up, out, and above the water, as Rika tapped her featherfall rune, launching herself upwards and bringing Jr along for the ride, carrying the prince in a single massive metal hand.

The other hand thrust out, launching a grappling hook to spear to the bridge over the pool, before reeling both of them over to it, and letting her deposit them both safely on solid ground.

Jr fell flat on his butt as soon as he was set down, gasping even as he cursed the names of all the things that had led to the situation ”Stupid Omori. Stupid fusion. Stupid metal arm. Stupid pipe builder. Stupid brain not just using Undyne or Dazzle or anything when stuff started to go wrong. Stupid stupid stupid” and clutching his shivering metal tattooed arm.

Rika sat down next to him awkwardly, not sure what to do in this situation. She then opened her mouth to, of all things, start apologizing for helping him when he’s said not to, only to find herself pulled into a hug by jr, by her brother, and taking a few moments to work out how to reciprocate the gesture before hugging him back.

They sat like that for a few moments longer before Jr broke the hug, sniffed, and muttered an awkward ”thanks” to his sister, now looking pretty embarrassed about the whole situation, about his shows of weakness, even as his arm kept shivering.

Again, Rika didn’t quite know how to handle this, at least not till she thought about what would make her happy in this situation (how to practice empathy being another thing she’d never been taught to do either, so this was something she came up with doing entirely on her own), and as a result ended up asking ”Do you... Do you want to go get some hot chocolate?”

Jr blinked a few times, sniffed again, before tuning to her and nodding.

And that was how when the Asgor talking crew caught up with them at the station, they found Jr and Rika had spent their unsupervised time and funds going through several takeaway cups of piping hot coco.

For his part, Roxas was a bit more interested in exploring the port town. That wouldn’t stop him from getting something to eat, of course. Instead, he decided to find something he could eat on the go. And that wasn’t too difficult. The pier had its share of outdoor food stalls. And at one of them, the Nobody got his hands on something called a Rushboar Hot Dog. He had no clue what a “Rushboar” was, but he figured a hot dog was mostly the same no matter what it was actually made of.

”Finally, time to eat.” Roxas said to himself. He’d left his mask and gauntlets aboard the Virgin Victory, figuring that he wouldn’t really need them since he had no intention of picking any fights. Besides, he didn’t want to scare people by running around in that mask all the time anyway, and the gauntlets would have made it harder to hold onto food without it getting messy. In addition, he also changed outfits, switching out of the hooded coat in favor of his casual clothing. Once again, he figured the coat’s functions wouldn’t be super necessary in this particular setting. He did, however, keep the Phantom Ruby necklace with him.

"Oh hey, Roxas!"

A voice cut through the bustling din of the port's main strip. It was Pit, and he didn't hesitate to jog and catch up with the other boy until he fell into step next to him, even if it hadn't been long since they'd last seen each other.

After the Seekers adjourned and split up to explore the city, the angel had made good on his suggestion of getting something to eat. Much too antsy after everything the Seekers had done and learned that morning, Pit had avoided slower cafes and restaurants in favor of the faster outdoor food carts much like Roxas had. He had a duo of skewers in each hand, half savory and half sweet, along with two empty sticks indicating he'd already demolished some of his lunch.

"Did you see all the farms from the water?" Pit said, gesturing vaguely with his food in the direction of the hills behind the city. "It was like the biggest farmland I've ever seen!"

Little did they know, Roxas and Pit were being followed. And before Roxas could even take his first bite, a yellow and tan blur leaped by him and snatched the hot dog right out of his hands, ”Hey! That was mine!” Roxas yelled out in protest. The critter in question looked like a chubby little puppy, with sparks of electricity appearing to jump off its tail as it took off running. Roxas, without much thinking about it, took off running as well in pursuit of the ornery little pup. Now, there was little point in recovering the hot dog now that it had been in the pup’s mouth - and Roxas probably could have just gone and got another one. But no, he was choosing to be stubborn and gave chase - with the sound of Pit's laughter echoing behind him.

Roxas chased Yamper around a couple of blocks. He could try to generate a wall of virtual cubes to corner the dog, but Roxas feared that would cause an even bigger scene. And besides, having to use his powers to catch a single little puppy dog? How embarrassing would that have been? So he kept chasing after the dog normally, right up until he literally crashed into someone as he rounded a corner. It was a redhead girl wearing a blue jacket, white skirt, and pink knee-high boots.

”Ow!” Roxas initially said when the two of them went tumbling. But that was quickly followed up with, ”I’m sorry! Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m fine,” said the girl, shaking her head. Nearby she spotted the dog scarfing down the hot dog it had stolen from Roxas, “Ugh, Yamper!” she cried out in a scolding tone. At that the dog scurried forward and stared up at her with an innocent expression, “How many times do I have to tell you not to steal people’s food!”

”Yam…per?” asked Roxas, realizing that this girl apparently knew the dog. Maybe she was its owner? ”Does he… belong to you?”

“I’m so sorry about Yamper!” said the girl with an apologetic, “He’s such an ornery troublemaker sometimes. But… no, he doesn’t belong to me. Well, I guess he does, in a sense. I’m Rui.” she said, sticking out her hand which Roxas then shook, “I run an adoption center for Pokemon and Pals here in Port Meridian. Yamper here is one of the center’s orphans.”

”What do you mean by ‘orphan’, exactly?” Roxas asked curiously.

“Like a lot of the Pokemon in the adoption center, Yamper here was abandoned by his trainer. I’ve been trying to find a home for him, but… well you can imagine how many people want to adopt a mischievous little scamp like him.” Rui explained.

”I’m guessing not very many.” Roxas said, ”But still, ‘abandoned’? That’s horrible. What kind of person would do that?”

“You’d be surprised how many cruel Trainers and Tamers are out there.” Rui said, “My partner and I do our best to rescue Pokemon and Pals from their abusive owners and try to find real homes for them.”

At this point, Roxas knelt down in order to get a closer look at the Pokemon, ”Yamper, huh? I’m Roxas.” he reached out a hand thinking Yamper might let Roxas pet him, but the puppy stayed where he was. ”Well he sure gave me the runaround. I was gonna explore town, and I guess he made me do it in half the time.” Roxas said with a small laugh.

“I take it that means you’re new?” Rui asked.

”Yep. Just got here, actually.” Roxas said, ”Which I guess makes Yamper here my official welcoming party.”

“Bow-wark!” Yamper barked, his tail beginning to wag.

“You know, it’s not every day I see someone managing to keep up with Yamper as well as you did. Most people only run a few feet before they give up and let him escape.” Rui said with a giggle.

”I guess I’m just persistent like that.” Roxas replied with a sheepish grin.

Pit reappeared not a moment later, his mop of brown hair poking around the wide alley's corner. He had taken his sweet time following after Roxas, made evident by the number of remaining skewers he'd been holding reduced to just one, and might have been content to leave the Nobody to his own devices if he hadn't heard the other boy's voice.

"I guess you didn't end up getting your food back?" Pit chortled, noting the crumbs still clinging to the puppy's snout. He stepped fully into the alley, offering the final glazed fruit skewer to Roxas with one hand and a friendly wave to Rui with the other.

”Not even a nibble.” Roxas replied to the angel as he accepted the skewer, ”This is Rui. And Rui? This is my friend, Pit.”

“Hiya.” the girl said, waving back to angel as he waved at her, “Does that mean you’re new to town, too?”

"Uh-huh! We-"

”Hey, where’d Yamper go?” Roxas interrupted. Looking around to find that Yamper had run off somewhere, ”He was just here, so where could he-?”

“Oh no…” Rui said, pointing somewhere and sounding genuinely afraid. Where she pointed was at a rather flamboyant-looking man snacking on a skewer of his own as he walked. Tall and thin, he stood out like a sore thumb with his purple outfit and comically large afro that was almost cartoonishly colored red on one side and white on the other. “...Yamper, don’t!” she cried out, practically screaming. She seemed less concerned about what Yamper was doing and more concerned about who he was doing it to.

But it was too late. Yamper made a leap to try and snatch the man’s snack. Rui’s shout, however, seemed to get his attention and he was able to dodge out of the pouncing Pokemon’s way but not without dropping his skewer to the ground in the process, “You ruined my snack you little thief!” He said as he instantly retrieved a pair of red-and-white balls from his personage.

“Please!” Rui said to Roxas and Pit in a hushed voice, “I know that guy, he’s bad news. Protect Yamper, and while you do I’ll go bring my partner here to back you up.” she said quickly before taking off in a sprint away from the two. As this happened, the afro man threw the two balls and from them released a pair of dancing, rotund creatures. They were green in color and big plant-based headdresses that almost resembled wide-brimmed hats.

"That guy? With those things? Really?" Pit asked, clearly in disbelief that the stranger could be "bad news." He looked hilarious! And so did the Pokémon he sent out. But the distress in Rui's voice was real, and Roxas didn’t need to be told twice.

”Leave Yamper alone!” he shouted as he sprinted forward to protect Yamper. Pit was only a beat behind him, and the two boys slid to a stop between the three Pokémon.

"Yeah! You're the one that dropped it - besides it still looks good to me!" Pit said, pointing to the fallen food and pretty much implying the stranger should eat it from the ground.

“You’ve GOT to be kidding me!” the man scoffed, “Nobody in their right mind would eat that now. And that mutt is the only reason I even dropped it to begin with. A trainer should ALWAYS keep better control of their Pokemon!” and then he looked around a bit and added, “You ARE this Yamper’s trainer, are you not? Surely one of you has to be, why else would you be this concerned?”

”His trainer?” Roxas echoed, ”Well, uh…”

“Good, then I guess that makes YOU responsible for fixing this mess your Pokemon made!”

”What, you want us to buy you a new skewer?” Roxas asked.

“No… I have a better idea than that.” the man said with a smirk, “I’ll just be taking that Yamper and adding him to my collection of Pokemon. Ludicolos, use Razor Leaf!" This prompted both the man’s Pokemon to suddenly shoot out a volley of leaves capable of cutting like razor blades.

In a flash a pair of divine shields manifested; the razor leaves struck their surface and fell limply to the ground. "What the heck is your problem? You can't just steal people's pets!"

“Watch us.” the man said, deliberately using the word “us” instead of “me” as a pair of oddly dressed goons appeared with Poke Balls in hand. “Let’s crush ‘em, boys!”

“You got it, Boss!” one of them said as he released a ghostly Pokemon from its Poke Ball. The other followed suit and released a burly, large-mouthed Pokemon from its Poke Ball.

“Not so fast, Miror B.!” came the familiar voice of Rui as she came sprinting into the scene. And she wasn’t alone. Following after her was a young man in a blue long coat. And he released two Pokemon of his own, one a purple fox with a red jewel on its forehead, and the other a black fox with golden-yellow accented stripes around its body in various spots.

Rui’s partner quickly retrieved a third Poke Ball from his belt and tossed it to Pit, loaning it to him to battle with when it looked to him like the angel had no Pokemon of his own. Pit scrambled to catch it, confused at first as to why he'd been thrown the Pokéball in the first place. Then it hit him, and a wide grin split across his face. A true Pokémon battle?!

Rui herself was scribbling something on two scraps of paper before she ran up and handed them to the boys, “Here, I jotted the moves those Pokemon can use for you in case you needed it.” the papers each contained a list of the four moves that Yamper and the Pokemon her partner loaned to Pit can use.

“You two?!” shouted the man called Miror B., “Well isn’t this perfect. I get to punish these twerps and get my revenge on the two of you! So let’s dance!”



“Ludicolo, use Magical Leaf! And Ludicolo, use Razor Leaf again!” Miror B. ordered. Both attacks appeared to be the same, but one of them was a special attack and the other a physical attack. In addition, Magical Leaf was an attack that would always hit without fail.

”Yamper, look out! cried Roxas, urging the dog to try and dodge the attack. It could avoid the Razor Leaf, but not the Magical Leaf. Roxas then looked down at the note Rui had handed him, ”Uh… got it, use Nuzzle!” at this the Yamper barked and charged forward. It quite literally nuzzled against the Ludicolo that had used Magical Leaf, dealing a small bit of Electric type damage but also inflicting it with Paralysis.

Though their battle was almost in the middle of a street, only a handful of pedestrians stopped to watch - they must have been used to trainers and Pals already. Hard to believe that there was such strict control over those kinds of things in Midgar, when this place wasn't that far away. Both Roxas and Pit could have settled an actual fight in moments, but where was the fun in that? They'd done enough real fighting for the day and it was still only lunch time. Besides, it seemed like Roxas had already committed, and Pit sort of wanted to try out a proper Pokémon battle anyway. Getting beaten up by Pikachu in tourneys hardly counted.

"Alright!" he said. "Go!"

One over the top throwing motion later and the ball left his hands, the borrowed pocket monster appearing in a brief flash of light. It was some kind of fat yellow snake, with tiny little wings on its back. To some, the Pokémon could be described as cute or charming, but to Pit it was underwhelming - especially compared to those already on the field.

"Aww nooo, a lame one?" the angel complained, his wings drooping slightly. Thankfully the Dunsparce didn't appear to take offense. It did wait for an order however, but as Pit's experience with Pokémon was limited and he couldn't actually read the notes Rui had pressed into his hand (though he had glanced at it to see if there were any helpful drawings), it ended up waiting a longer than usual for those orders to come.

"Well, whatever! You can do it! Do the thing! ...Tackle! Headbutt! Flamethrower!" Dunsparce did none of those things, just patiently waited until Pit finally issued a command it could follow through on. "Just try and take it down!"

Using its tail as a prop, the Pokémon flung itself bodily at the Ludicolo not currently being nuzzled by Yamper, colliding with it head on. It dealt a good-sized blow of Normal-type damage made stronger by the fact that Dunsparce was itself a Normal-type Pokemon. However the attack also came at the cost of recoil damage dealt back against Dunsparce, though comparatively less than what the Ludicolo had suffered.

"Yeah! That's the way!"

As Dunsparce’s attack made contact, the other Ludicolo had finally managed to shake off Yamper. But the damage was already done, “Shake it off!” Mirror B. urged, “Ludicolo, use Sunny Day! And Ludicolo, use Weather Ball!” at this command, the non-paralyzed Ludicolo began to dance, and with that dance, the sunlight grew bright and harsh. The other Ludicolo tried to channel its energy into a Weather Ball, which would have been a scorching hot fire type attack under the current weather. But unfortunately, it sparked with static electricity and remained immobile for now due to paralysis.

Rui had been watching the battles, and now she yelled out a suggestion, “Have him use Fire Fang, Roxas! Just trust me!” to which Roxas nodded in response.

”Do it, Yamper! Use Fire Fang!” he called out. Yamper barked and charged forward and launched itself into a lunging bite attack against the paralyzed Ludicolo. However, Yamper’s teeth and fangs had become wraithed in flames whose heat and power were only increased in the harsh sunlight of Sunny Day. The attack connected and dealt a nice blow to Ludicolo. But it still wasn’t beaten just yet.

Yamper's partner for the battle was enthusiastically issued another Take Down order, given it was the one move Pit had shouted out that worked.

Dunsparce performed the same bodily tackle, throwing its entire weight at the opponent Pokémon. After a second round of smashing into Ludicolo, both Pokémon reeling as Dunsparce bounced back into position, the recoil damage from the attack was starting to become obvious. Huh? Is it hurting itself? Drawing on his small frame of reference, Pit guessed it possible this winged snake was like Pichu and its electricity. Except instead of electricity, it just had really soft skin or something?

"Uh, we'll try something else next!" Pit promised the Pokémon, earning an affirmative warble from Dunsparce.

“He has other moves!” Rui yelled out to Pit, “DIdn’t you read my note? Charm sharply lowers an opponent’s attack, Glare makes them paralyzed, and Ancient Power is a Rock-type attack!” she quickly advised him.

"About that..." Pit said, growing a bit red in the face.

“Pfft, hahaha!” Miror B. laughed, “What kind of Trainer needs advice from the sidelines?” he mocked and then quickly added, “Ludicolo, switch it up and use Rain Dance! And Ludicolo 2? Use Weather Ball!” This time it was the paralyzed Ludicolo who tried to dance. Unlike before, he was able to fight through the paralysis and performed its dance, which in turn caused the weather to change from bright and sunny, to rain and thunder. Miror B. had noticed the boost that Sunny Day had given to Yamper and so he took it away. Now Fire-type moves would be weakened instead of boosted, and conversely the rain would boost the damage of all Water-type moves. Speaking of which, the other Ludicolo charged its energy and fired off its attack. In the current weather, Weather Ball became a Water-type move that consequently would be boosted by the rain, and the attack was heading straight for Dunsparce!

”Again with the weather?” Roxas groaned in annoyance. Clearly this Miror B. character had way more experience with Pokemon Battling than he and Pit did. Not that he was gonna let that deter him, ”Use Nuzzle on the other Ludicolo!” he told Yamper. The Pokemon barked and charged for its target, who was too distracted from attacking Dunsparce to react in time. It got hit and was afflicted with the same paralysis as its partner.

"You're lucky we're just fighting with Pokémon!" was Pit's retort to Miror B.'s jeering. The fact that this was an actual Pokémon battle was what stopped him from jumping in the way to protect his borrowed one from the Weather Ball, like he'd done earlier with the Razor Leaf. All he could do was bid Dunsparce to get out of the way. Unfortunately the 'mon was too slow, taking the blast but still hanging in there.

"No worries!" he told Dunsparce. He thought they could still win, and even if they didn't the battle would be over and they could just... personally prevent these dubious villains from trying anything.

"Do Ancient Power this time!" The Pokémon complied, spinning its tail and jabbing it into the ground as energy gathered around it. Several rocks were conjured up that flew back at the offending, freshly paralyzed Ludicolo. The rocks landed and did semi-decent damage to Ludicolo. But more importantly, Dunsparce managed to also trigger its secondary effect, one that boosted all its stats by one stage each.

Roxas was getting tired of having to respond to Miror B.’s attacks and so he was quick on the draw to give out his next command, ”Use Spark on the other Ludicolo!” And the Yamper obeyed. With a bark it lunged at the dancing Ludicolo and tackled into it while covering its own body with electricity. It dealt medium Electric-type damage, and while Ludicolo’s typing allowed it to resist it somewhat, that still didn’t change the fact that it was getting close to its last legs.

Thanks to Dunsparce's stat boosts, when Pit issued the order for attack (another Ancient Power of course) it was quicker to execute it. It wasn't lucky enough for another power up, but even so when the rocks crashed against the other side of the field they benefited from the increase to its special attack.

Miror B.’s confidence was still not shaken yet. Unknown to either of the Seekers, the rain he had set up was now allowing both Ludicolo to gradually regain health every so often thanks to their passive abilities. So if he could stall this out, it could allow them to gain their second wind. “Use Water Pulse!” He ordered both the Ludicolos. The one targeting Dunsparce was too paralyzed to move, but the one battling Yamper managed to spit out a pulsing blast of water. It smashed into Yamper dealing hefty damage thanks to the rain. And fortunately for Roxas, Yamper managed to avoid succumbing to the move’s secondary effect… this time.

So far Pit had gone all in on attacking moves, and frankly he wasn't about to stop now. Offense was the best defense after all - most of the time! Though the angel was very obviously not a Pokémon Trainer, he did have a surprisingly good battle sense, and he could tell that his own 'mon had powered up and the Ludicolos were hurting. He took this as the cue to go back to Dunsparce's stronger attack, both in hopes it had become tougher against its recoil and strong enough to finish off an opponent.

"Alright, for real this time! Take Down!"

"Duuuns!" Dunsparce obediently followed through, throwing itself at the Ludicolo that was stuck in place. At this point, all four of the battling Pokemon were showing their fatigue. They’d all taken their share of licks and damage from one another. But the Ludicolos, in spite of the rain, were the ones that looked slightly more ready to drop. And so Miror B. scowled.

“Return!” he called, recalling both Pokemon back into their Poke Balls. But if Pit and Roxas thought that this meant victory, they were wrong. Miror B. held out one more Poke Ball with a smirk, “No more Mr. Nice Guy.” he grumbled, “You wanna play hardball? Then let’s play! Take the stage!”



He threw the Poke Ball and released the Pokemon from within it. It looked like a dragon with a cute babyface. But something about it was… wrong, somehow. It had an angered expression, and eyes that looked full of hate. And it also bore a dark purple aura that was invisible to everyone… except for one person.

“Wes, that Dragonite!” Rui suddenly cried out, “It’s a Shadow Pokemon!”

“Use Shadow Rush!” Miror B. commanded. At this the dragon Pokemon launched itself into a super fast lunge with but a single beat of its wings. It flew right at Yamper looking to slam into it with all its speed and might. But the attack never connected.

“Umbreon, Protect!”

Seemingly out of nowhere, Wes’ Umbreon launched itself in between Yamper and Dragonite and put up a small barrier shield around itself that absorbed the attack and nullified the damage it would have dealt. And then Wes, quick on the draw, issued a second command.

“Toxic!”

Umbreon then released a stream of thick, purple liquid that sprayed the Dragonite, inflicting it with a poison that would deal an increasing amount of incremental damage as the battle went on. This was all well and good but Yamper and Dunsparce were still pretty damaged from the battle against the Ludicolos. So Roxas decided to fix that problem with a quick Curaga spell, ”Heal!” The spell conjured healing leaves that washed over the two Pokemon and healed them for much of the damage that they’d taken so far.

“3 vs 1?!” Miror B. griped, “And healing magic? You call this a fair battle?”

“Does this look like a tournament battle to you?” Rui retorted, “And that’s rich coming from the guy using a Shadow Pokemon!”

Wes had already wrapped up his battle against the two peons, so he stepped forward and held out both arms in front of Pit and Roxas - offering to battle the Dragonite himself, ”No way! Yamper and I came this far, we’re not running away now!” Roxas said. Pit held a similar notion. Though at this point he was considering this as part of winding down in town after their world saving fight earlier. "This is kinda fun, I want to see it through!"

Their response prompted a smile from the former Team Snagem member, who lowered his arms and nodded to them both. But before he gave control of Dunsparce back to Pit, the Trainer had one command for it.

“Use Charm!” Dunsparce obeyed and proceeded to do a cute little charming gesture at the Dragonite. In spite of its fierce aura, it was still affected and its Attack stat sharply lowered as a result.

With the new battle beginning, Pit jumped right in to give Dunsparce a command himself. Seeing how helpful the paralysis had been against the Ludicolos, he took Rui's earlier advice and used a non-attacking move for once.

"Okay! Try Glare this time!" he said, pointing at the Dragonite dramatically. Dunsparce shuffled forward, transitioning between acting cute for its charm and mustering the meanest glare it could give, given its dopey face. Even with its fierce expression, Dragonite still had kind of a dopey face of its own at the end of the day, so Dunsparce’s Glare worked as intended, afflicting the Shadow Pokemon with paralysis.

Of course, Miror. B had taken notice of all the debuffs his Pokemon was suffering and went with a different strategy now, “Shadow Storm!” he called out. This prompted Dragonite to fight through the paralysis and release a storm of dark shadows onto all of its current opponents. But thankfully Wes still remained quick on the draw.

“Light Screen!” he ordered, prompting Umbreon to make its yellow circles and stripes glow briefly as it summoned an invisible, reflective wall of light to absorb the brunt of the Shadow Storm attack.

”Yamper, use Spark!” Roxas called, sending Yamper into a charging tackle while sparking with electricity. Dragonite’s paralysis had halved its speed so it was unable to avoid taking the hit. The damage wasn’t great, due to Dragonite being naturally resistant to electric attacks, but still - damage was damage. And Wes decided to use that moment of distraction to recall his Umbreon and send out a new Pokemon, blue and oblong with short arms and a flat chubby tail. And then, with dark purple bubbles flaring up around it, Dragonite took its first hit of damage from the poison.

“Shadow Shed!” Miror B. called. Dragonite gave a roar and flared up a shadowy aura that caused the Light Screen to shatter and disappear.

The battle changes had drawn a couple more curious onlookers by now, perhaps because it was flashier than usual. Thankfully since Roxas and Pit were playing by the rules (for the most part), the damage was kept to the Pokémon combatants only, sparing the citizens and architecture from crossfire. Though given how strong this dragon seemed to be, it might not stay that way for long. It could even smash through barriers! So it looked like offense really would be the best defense!

"Another Ancient Power!" Pit called out. Dunsparce once more grounded itself and summoned a hail of stones to float up before whipping towards Dragonite, pummeling it with the Rock-type move. Once again, the move didn’t boost Dunsparce’s stats. But the Rock-type nature of the attack made it super effective against Dragonite.

”Use another Spark” Roxas called, prompting another electrified tackle. But by now Dragonite had regained enough composure to fight through Paralysis and knocked the Yamper back with its tail. And then Wes and Miror B. called their attacks at the same time.

“Shadow Storm!” / “Ice Punch!”

Wes’ Quagsire coated one of its arms in ice and launched itself into an uppercut against the Dragonite, who simultaneously released its wave of darkness at the trio of opponents. Quagsire was able to push its way through to deal a quadruple effective blow against Dragonite. But that didn’t stop the remainder of the Shadow Storm from threatening to overtake Dunsparce and Yamper.

”Yamper!” Roxas cried out. Instinctively he rushed forward and then used the power of the Phantom Ruby necklace to summon a 5-by-5 wall of virtual cubes in front of them to take the incoming attack. That stopped the brunt of the damage, but the cubes weren’t indestructible. The Shadow Storm made them crack and then eventually shatter into pieces that gradually faded away. Roxas knelt down and used his body to shield Yamper, protecting it from the virtual shards that he knew would be harmful to anyone other than himself that touched them.

At the same time, Pit was keeping to his role. His divine arsenal stayed put in whatever ethereal realm it was usually stowed in. He didn't interfere directly, and he felt pretty confident in his Pokémon - clearly the Trainer he borrowed it from was a professional, and Dunsparce was too. He kind of regretted calling it lame before.

"You can weather that storm, Duns!" he said, repeating the sound he'd heard the Dunsparce say as its name. Dunsparce was indeed a Pokémon experienced in battle, and though unbeknownst to Roxas and Pit a former Shadow Pokémon itself. It curled up and braced itself as the Shadow Storm washed over it, and though the damage was super effective Dunsparce managed to hang in there thanks to a combination of buffs, debuffs, and the curaga.

Nearby, Wes decided now was the time. He activated the mysterious machine that had been attached to his right arm this whole time and then put an empty Poke Ball in his right hand. This Ball was slightly different, being mostly black/white instead of red/white and also possessed yellow stripes in the black area. With a quick motion, Wes threw the ball at Dragonite. And while this was normally impossible, the ball he threw briefly became a different type of ball that released a capturing energy shaped like a clawed hand that grabbed Dragonite and snagged it into the Ultra Ball. The ball recoiled back to ground in front of Wes’ feet, and then…its button glowed red and began to wobble.

One.

Rui and Wes watched the ball in tense anticipation. Meanwhile Roxas didn’t know what was happening.

Two.

“Nononono!” Miror B. wailed. He wanted to send his other Pokemon back out to stop this, but they had already been battered and bruised from the earlier part of the battle.

Three.

Wes’ muscles tensed up even more. If this failed then they’d have to survive another attack before he could throw another ball. The ball paused after its third wobble for what felt like a very long time, and then…

Click.

The ball’s red glow suddenly switched to green and then faded back to its default white color, confirming the successful catch. Rui and Wes both relaxed immediately. It was over. Shadow Dragonite was officially snagged.

“Gah! You!” Miror B. pointed an accusatory finger, “This isn’t over!” He declared. As tough as he was trying to sound, he and his two peons were out of Pokemon and had no other choice but to run away.

”Are you okay, Yamper?” Roxas asked, the pup barked up at him happily and proceeded to start licking him in the face. ”Hahaha, okay okay! I’ll take that as a yes.”

"Good riddance!" Pit called after Miror B. before looking at the others, musing, "Do you think he'd be less of a jerk if he had a better haircut?"

Dunsparce raised the front half of its body and wiggled around in its version of an answer, or maybe it was a cheer for victory. Either way Pit knelt down to pat it on the head before returning it to its Pokéball, having since Trainers do it enough that he could figure it out himself. He approached Wes to return the ball to him, asking some questions as he did.

"What was that? Did you just take that guy's evil Pokémon?" His attention shifted back and forth from Wes, the device on his arm, and Rui. "I didn't even know they could be evil, they're mostly just cute! But that one had something going on, right?"

“Let’s get everyone back to the adoption center to heal up.” Rui suggested, “I’ll answer your questions there.”

They led the two Seekers to their adoption center, which looked like it had been repurposed from a Pokemon Center since it still had the characteristic red roof. And it also had the machine that could be used to fully heal up Pokemon while they were still resting in their Poke Balls. Rui placed the balls for all the Pokemon who had battled into the machine - including the Ultra Ball that contained Dragonite.

“To answer your question,” Rui finally said, “you’re right, that Dragonite did have something going on with it.” She took a breath and continued her explanation, “Some Pokemon who’ve been abused by their trainers end up closing off their hearts, and they become filled with anger and aggression until they become a dark version of themselves. We call those Shadow Pokemon. Normally it’s impossible to tell the difference between a Shadow Pokemon and a normal one, but I’ve always had the gift of being able to see it. Now that we’ve rescued poor Dragonite, we can treat it properly until it opens its heart back and up. Then we can purify it of the darkness and help it find a new home.”

This was actually hitting Roxas rather close to home. All the talk of hearts and darkness reminded him very much of his own world, and it also made him wonder… had Yamper previously been Shadow Pokemon? Was that why he was a bit of a troublemaker?

“Anyway,” Rui continued, “Wes’ machine is called the Snag Machine. His former bosses in Team Snagem created it to steal Pokemon, but Wes took the machine himself to keep it out of the wrong hands. We’ve been using it ever since to rescue Pokemon from abusive trainers, then use our adoption center here to find them better homes.”

Pit took in the center, from the healing machine to a couple of moles that had peeked out from a doorway and waved to Rui once she'd returned. It seemed like a nice place, with nice people. Would that Midgar had something like this instead of subjecting all those confiscated Pokémon to their unpleasant fate. Recalling the hatchery they'd found, Pit looked at Rui curiously.

"Would you take care of baby Pokémon here too?" he asked. "I dunno how far word spread, but there miiiight be a power problem in that giant city over there. I have a feeling there'll be a bunch of orphans headed this way."

That was just his guess anyway. When it came to animals and Pokémon, Lady Palutena had mentioned that most of them eventually go to "a farm upstate," so it only made sense that any refugees that had the mind to rescue those Pokémon and their eggs might bring them to Port Meridian and its huge farmland.

“Huh?” She asked, “Um… well we’ll try, I guess. We’re a bit small here, but I guess this’ll give us a chance to expand!”

And that was when the machine gave its familiar chime to indicate that the healing was done. And this prompted Rui to change the subject as she took Yamper’s Poke Ball off the machine and handed it over to Roxas, ”Huh? What’s this?” He asked, confused by the gesture.

“C’mon, I saw how great you two were together in that battle.” Rui said, “You’d be a great trainer for Yamper.” Nearby, Wes was nodding in agreement.

Roxas reluctantly took the Poke Ball in his hand, ”You… think so?” He asked, then released Yamper from the ball, ”What do you think, Yamper?” Roxas asked, kneeling down. ”You… wanna come with me?”

“Bow-wark!” Yamper said as it excitedly spun around in a circle. Then it leapt up and licked Roxas in the face.

“See? What’d I tell you?” Rui said with a big smile, “He’s all yours, then!” She thought for a moment and then continued, “Y’know, some Trainers like to give their Pokemon nicknames. You can try giving one to Yamper if you like. While you think it over, Wes and I will be right back.”

”Nickname, huh?” Roxas asked. ”With how much of a mischievous scamp you were earlier… maybe I should call you Scamp?” The Yamper just maintained a happy little expression before replying with a “bow-wark!”.

“Here you go, Roxas.” said Rui, now returning from the back room she and Wes had gone to. She held a small backpack with a single shoulder strap that she placed on the front counter.

”A… bag?” Roxas asked, curiously.

“Yes, a bag.” Rui said, “Since you don’t already have one, and you do want something to carry your trainer supplies with, don’t you?” She asked, then started pointing to specific pouches, “See? There’s a pouch for Poke Balls, one for Berries, one for Medicine like potions and antidotes, and even one for TMs in case you find any.”

”Huh?” Roxas was a little overwhelmed by the info dump, but accepted the bag anyway. Rui just sighed.

“Don’t worry, I wrote down some instructions that tell you what all of that means.” She said as she rubbed her temples, “Anyway, make sure you check inside the pouches. Wes wanted to give you a little something to help you get started. Just think of it like a… Pokemon Trainer Starter Kit!” She said with a wink.

”Really? You’re just giving it all to me?”

“As long as you promise to take good care of Yamper, then of course we are.” She replied.

”Yeah, I promise!” Roxas said and accepted the kit.



If it had been any other kind of gift, Pit would probably have been jealous of Roxas. No, actually, he definitely would have been. Who wouldn't want free stuff after all? But since it was a Pokémon he didn't feel put out one bit. The battle had been fun, sure, but just playing a being a trainer was fine with him. He had his hands full commanding Centurions whenever they actually had to take the field, plus he preferred to handle his opponents himself anyway. So the angel just grinned at Roxas and clapped him on the back a few times in congratulations.

"Welcome to the team little guy!" he then said to Scamp.

Well now they'd officially done one huge good deed and one small good deed today. And maybe one really small one if you counted warning the adoption center about a potential influx of critters needing homes. Yup, all in a day's work, Pit thought. He looked back at Roxas. "I don't know about you, but I'm kind of hungry again."

Roxas’ stomach growled almost as if in response, ”So am I.” He agreed, ”And from now on I better make sure to get double servings in case a certain little someone decides to make off with my lunch again.” He added, prompting a laugh from basically everyone in the room.

“Bye you guys!” said Rui as the Seekers departed, she was standing outside the adoption alongside Wes as they both waved, “Hope we see you again sometime!” Roxas hoped she didn’t mean for a battle against Wes, because he was pretty sure he’d get creamed by a professional trainer like him.

”Lunch, here we come!” Roxas shouted. And Scamp gave his “bow-wark!” in response as he followed after his new Trainer.

’So much for these clothes…’ the scholar thought with an annoyed groan, a price paid or rather karma if that was to be believed over deciding to follow the boy - Therion, his name was, and the others through the pipe and unceremoniously tumbled into the blackened waters with a loud splash.

Clamoring out of the water and onto solid ground the scholar sputtered and shook his shaggy mane of hair sending droplets of water everywhere, his glasses had nearly fallen from his face and he felt his boots slosh as he stood to his feet wiping the wetness from his spectacles.

A downpour pelted upon the man's broad shoulders from above. The drenching rain it seemed was for the time inescapable so with a gruff sigh Osvald pulled the hood of his ragged clothes over his head and carried on his way.

As the scholar proceeded into the city, he quickly spotted a familiar face - or, well, part of one. Therion was parked under the closest rain shelter to the lake, his poncho and scarf drawn up high to cover his mouth. His knees were drawn up, his tail was curled around his legs, he clenched something close to his chest, and his ears were laying flat upon his head… until one flicked up as he heard Osvald approach, though just barely over the rain.

"Hey," he said, motioning Osvald over. He looked perturbed. "Help me out here? Go get me an umbrella. A huge one."

Reluctantly nodding his head the scholar let out an exasperated sigh “Fine…” Osvald grumbled, finding an umbrella shouldn't be that hard for a distinguished scholar like himself anyway.

For his part, Therion hadn’t really wanted to ask in the first place. He disliked asking for help in general. But as far as he was concerned, Osvald did owe him one for getting that muzzle off his face - and he was loath to go out into the rain at the moment.

Osvald's appearance drew the cautious gaze of those few passersby that made their way through the relatively empty city street, besides the sound of an almost somber downpour that pitter-pattered against the flagstone.

Sighing deeply Osvald made his way through the quiet streets, hands shoved deep in the pockets of his wet overcoat with the hood of his ragged outfit drawn over his head he stuck out like a sore thumb as he made his way through the city.

Osvald couldn't help but ruminate on the irony – here he was, a man of intellect and study, reduced to an errand boy in search of a simple object to fend off raindrops, annoyed as he may be by such a menial task he was want and ever determined to get it over with.

Trudging along the melancholy streets of the City of Tears the scholar came to a somewhat bustling market stall sheltered ‘neath an overhang, busy with a few people milling about of various shapes bug, monster and human alike.

He saw an array of umbrellas – some small and dainty, others large and robust. The stallkeeper an odd looking creature akin to an umbrella seemed preoccupied with haggling customers, trying it's best to persuade them to buy their sandals it didn't notice Osvald's approach.

Too many people would draw attention to him if he simply robbed the stall so as he walked up to the stall he pretended to stumble crashing into the stall - A painful endeavor, for his back of course but a clever ruse indeed.

His feint lacked much grace so some of the kasa-obake's wares were damaged, however in the mess the scholar caused he quickly shot a hand out grabbing the handle of the largest umbrella his fingers could wrap his hands around.

It was a grand, sturdy looking thing that looked like it could cover two - perhaps even three people from the relentless deluge of the city. Without a second glance, Osvald hurried off melding back into the inky shadows that hung upon the city, with the stolen umbrella tucked under his arm.

Footsteps heralded the scholar's swift return to Therion, Osvald's mood slightly lifted by the success of his illicit acquisition.

He handed the umbrella over to the thief with a mix of relief and residual irritation he couldn't help but smirk; however when he gave Therion the umbrella “Here,” he said, the annoyance fading. “Try not to ask for any more favors under this rain, I am not as charitable as Dohter.” the scholar remarked, despite the day's frustrations, he felt a peculiar satisfaction.

Therion scoffed.

"Sure," he said, standing swiftly and taking the umbrella. He popped it open while still under the rain shelter, making for a slightly comedic sight. Glancing up at it, he approved of how big it was. That should definitely keep any water away from him... after fusing with those two cat-like spirits he had come to dislike getting wet, but he had tolerated it. Now, though, something else had clearly changed. When the pipe had dumped him into the lake, his entire body felt like it was on fire. It was close to the most painful thing he'd ever experienced (falling from a cliff and nearly dying still won out), and it had taken all of his power but mental and physical to will his body to work enough to swim to safety. Since no one else seemed to have a “burning alive” issue with the water, there must have been something wrong with him. The wraith spirit?

Ugh... Therion shuddered, tucking the Constrained Heart back into his pouch. That experience had been awful - he still felt weary from it. So he was grateful that Osvald had sucked it up and done what he'd asked, despite being so reluctant. 'Not as charitable as Dohter', he scoffed again to himself, Who is? Besides maybe Alfyn... hey, wait. He did say Dohter, right?

Therion squinted at the old man. Dohter the Lord of Succor was one of the gods of his world, Orsterra, and the patron of apothecaries. He was often called The Charitable as well. It would be a wild coincidence if Osvald knew about him but hailed from a different world.

"You know about Dohter?" the thief questioned. "You're from Orsterra?"

“Hmph, I've heard of Dohter,” he began slowly saying measuring his words, an inkling of his thoughts dripped out much like the waters above drawn from a lake of reluctant memories that came flooding to him “And no, my home is Solistia. I only know of this Orsterra you speak of from old texts and scattered stories, nothing more.”

So the scholar had heard of Orsterra, though Therion had never heard of a "Solistia." Was it farther than G'roha? He wasn't a geography master or anything, but he hadn't heard it mentioned ever - until now. Maybe Osvald wasn't from his world after all.

"What texts? Where'd you read them?" Therion asked. He tried not to sound accusatory, but he was confused - maybe the older man had read something about Orsterra in a book like the one Robin Goodfellow had? Kamek had mentioned it had information about people and monsters they'd encountered. Plus, what did he mean by "old" and "scattered"? The guy was making it sound like Orsterra was some place lost to history.

Osvald with a look quirked a brow, noticed the confusion and slight edge in the boys voice the scholar grunted “Calm down,” the scholar said plainly giving Therion a stern look before drawing a deep breath.

Continuing, the broad shouldered magical scholar crossed his arms and stared off into the darkness of the city above after a bit of tense silence that passed between them “Orsterra,” he began, eyes closed he spoke with slow measure drawing upon what memories he could recall.

“Hmm, all I know or heard about such a land has come from stories, magical theory doesn't go into geography much after all but if I recall some texts...” the grizzled scholar paused adjusting his glasses while shifting his overcoat to shake the water from it he continued “All that is known for certain is that it exists far, far away from our own lands.”

That hardly really answered Therion's question, but even if he'd asked in a more direct way the glow in Osvald's eyes would most likely prevent him from really understanding.

"So, what, you worship the Twelve in 'Solistia' too?" he settled for asking.

“’Eight, it was eight gods that sealed away the wicked Vide’” almost sounding bored the scholar recited that bit of scripture “The Trader, the Prince of Thieves, the Huntress, the Thunderblade, then the Lady of Grace, the Scholarking, the Charitable... and finally the Flamebringer.”

Though unfamiliar with the "Vide" character, the eight titles Osvald listed matched up perfectly with eight of the Orsterran pantheon, missing only the Runeblade, the Archmagus, the Starseer and the Warbringer. It was evidence that even if the man wasn't from Orsterra, he was from some other continent in the same realm. Same gods, different myths, maybe? Cyrus would have a field day with this, Therion thought. The thief himself found it mildly interesting, but he was more surprised than anything else. Then again, he and Primrose had found each other. Maybe it wasn't such a rare occurrence, and any regular stranger could hail from the same world.

"Well we've got the same gods in Orsterra," Therion said, shifting the umbrella slightly so he could better watch the lake. His original plan to find the train station and wait there was dashed, so he figured they could just go together with the others, let Ms. Fortune lead. So far besides himself and Osvald, only Sectonia, Junior, and Rika had come down. The little turtle had looked like he'd had a problem swimming when he'd landed, but given Therion's own predicament he hadn't had the nerve to venture into the water, or the rain afterwards to check on the kids. He felt a little bad about it, but at least the conversation with Osvald was distracting him. "So you can add that to your list of things you know about it."

“Hmm…Is that so?” Osvald mused, the surly scholar's voice laced with a blend of skepticism and a hint of light curiosity “Interesting.” was all he said.

No long-winded tongue flapping came from the man, outwardly he appeared detached and aloof but in his thoughts he was deeply interested in this development, there was just no stock in wasting time with idle conjecture.

Stoic as ever the scholar stood in the rain with his hands deep in the pockets of his large waistcoat “Hmph…Our God's seem as indiscriminate with their presence as they are in their blessings.” his words dripped with as much dryness as there was a level of skepticism, but he didn't think the thief was lying; it was a comment on the similarities of their world.

The two of them lapsed into silence, neither of them particularly caring to carry on the conversation just then. After a few minutes Osvald had eventually stooped to stand under the shelter as well (and though Therion shuffled over he selfishly kept the umbrella open and to himself), which was when it hit Therion that the scholar was still here. As in, hanging around the Seekers. Had anyone even had the time to explain the whole Galeem-thing to the man while they were in Mercy Dreams? He knew he hadn’t. Therion glanced at Osvald.

"You’re out of that prison now," he said, "you don’t have to stick with us. What’s your plan from here?"

Before Osvald's expression was inscrutable or bored however the thief's question must have struck something because an unmistakable rage glinted behind the glare of his spectacles.

“I had everything ripped away from me, my life…My family…My life's work…” there was such vitriol in the scholar's voice as he spoke - a drastic change from his aloof and almost emotionally detached demeanor earlier and when Osvald looked at the thief his eyes were glowing red “I'll stop at nothing to find the man who took everything from me and kill him.”

The thief blinked in surprise at the sudden change in Osvald. Such a strong desire for revenge was actually familiar, though not for him personally. Therion looked away from the scholar, back to the lake. ”You’re probably going to have a hard time with that,” he muttered, though loud enough that Osvald heard him.

Osvald's lips curled from a snarl to that of a deep frown, the scholar's stern piercing eyes narrowed suspiciously looking at Therion “Why would that be?” he said through gritted teeth, nothing could keep him from finding Harvey he couldn't rest until he found him and killed him.

Therion sighed. How was he supposed to explain how jumbled up the world was, and that though it was possible to find one specific person in it, it was very, very, unlikely. While Osvald still had the light of Galeem inside him, there was no way he’d understand. Weighing the pros and cons of what he was considering, Therion turned and took the umbrella in one hand, letting it hang slightly so that the two men were mostly obscured from the eyes of passerbys.

”Don’t take this personally,” Therion said, the only warning Osvald got before the thief’s free hand flicked out towards him with the Stinging Dagger held in his grip. The blade sunk deep into Osvald’s stomach, twisted, and ran upward in one motion with intent to deal as much damage as possible. It wasn’t immediately fatal, but for a human very quickly would be. Though he knew it was painful as hell too, Therion couldn’t feel bad about it for long since it would be fixed in just a moment. He withdrew the weapon, and one friend heart later Osvald was good as new, minus a new hole in his clothes.

The scholar's eyes squinted wincing in pain as blood pooled from his chest, anger and the feeling of betrayal flooded him then all at once it faded “What…How?” the scholar pat his chest, where the dagger was plunged slightly annoyed by hole in his clothes “Tell me the meaning of this now.”

Therion stepped away and resumed his previous position. ”I’ll give you the short version,” he replied, killing the rest of the time until the other Seekers finished meeting with Asgore by explaining the basics of the new world to Osvald.

Osvald scratched his beard, and ruminated what Therion told him in short about everything the scholar was silent breathing a deep rumbling sigh as he took into consideration what exactly this all meant “I'd thank you if you hadn't stabbed me, though I presume that was necessary for whatever reason.” the older man said with mild annoyance as he put a finger through the hole of his shirt.

Beneath the collar obscuring his face, Therion smirked lightly. Right, right, he'd have to explain that part too.

Zenkichi blinked a few times after Sandalphon approached, then gave her a little smile. Though they’d just spoken the previous night, it certainly felt like a lot of time had passed. Dealing with Arahabaki and everything that happened below the surface, then defeating the Guardian and Consul C after dealing with Y, all just in the morning.

Akane, on the other hand, was a bit more intimidated. Her father was a fairly tall man, but this lady had a good few inches on him. She almost rolled her eyes when Sandalphon knelt to meet her eyes, but when the woman spoke, part of her was glad she didn’t. There was an undertone of sincerity in Sandalphon’s voice that gave her pause, then she nodded. “Yeah, it’s…been a lot. First dad comes back from work and tells me we have to go, drags me to a place with some weird secret agents, one of them stabs me with a key and makes me realize we’re in some weirdo alternate reality, and then after a couple days hiding out there, apparently there’s a civil war or something, then his friend shows up on TV and says the city’s about to collapse and she’s gonna lead a new one?”

Her tensed shoulders dropped, and Akane let out a sigh. “I could use a little peace.”

Zenkichi just shrugged, chuckling a bit. ”Yeah, I don’t mind. And don’t worry, Akane, Sandalphon’s pretty cool.” Smiling at his daughter and giving her a reassuring nod, Zenkichi’s face dropped when he recognized the look on her face. Oh no.

“You just think she’s pretty, dad, I’m not stupid.” The moderately acerbic comment left a grimace on her father’s face, but Akane just shrugged. “At least she looks old enough for you.” At that, he actually groaned a little, running his hand down his face.

”Oh, come on, Akane, at least cut me a little slack…” He whined, hanging his shoulders slightly.

For a brief moment, Sandalphon’s pupils became star-shaped sparkles, and though they quickly snapped back to their typical power symbols, a faint shadow of amusement remained on her angelic features. “It’s heartening to see you two so close.” She could only assume that this sort of ribbing, uncommon among strangers, spoke to the strength of their familiar bond despite circumstances that could have easily strained it. “After so much clamor and upheaval in the big city, I can certainly use some peace and quiet myself. Come,” she gestured toward Port Meridian. “Let us go together and sample a simpler walk of life.”

The three set off at a leisurely pace, Sandalphon walking on one side of Akane and Zenkichi on the other. So far, very few of the Seekers had seen the archangel not holding something, be it a staff for healing, a gun for harming, or a gunstaff for both. Still, she conducted herself with the same serene grace, though the way she clasped her hands behind her back gave her a slight air of stiff formality. She soaked in the sights, sounds, and smells with wide-eyed curiosity, from the storefronts to the waterfront, sometimes pausing to observe that the others might consider quite ordinary as they breathed deep of the gloriously fresh air.

“I realize that I’ve sorely missed scenery like this,” she remarked. “Last night, I mentioned Grams. It’s also a big city, though smaller in Midgar, and I’ve learned that the world I hail from would be considered medieval by most standards.” Sandalphon paused to peer into a lamp shop, where masterpieces of metal and glass either stood or dangled in all shapes and sizes, aglow with warmth and fragrant with burning incense. Then she stared up in mild bemusement at a retailer that evidently specialized in lawn gnomes, her expression blank but her pupils turned to triple question marks. The next moment, the sight of an absolutely filthy Pomeranian distracted her as it raced by, yapping loudly and leaving a trail of mud in its wake. “It had its fair share of problems, but around Grams lay a beautiful pastoral landscape. On days of rest I would often stray out through the fields, entreating the local beekeepers for fresh honey. There really is no greater delicacy.”

While saying this, her gaze edged toward the port town’s farmers’ market. Though she clearly didn’t intend to steer her acquaintances anywhere in particular, her body language made her desire quite plain.

”Wanna check out that farmers’ market?” Zenkichi asked, having easily caught the angel’s side-eye of the stalls. She definitely seemed a bit more expressive, though that just might be him getting used to having to catch the quick flashes of her pupils whenever they changed. It was very cute to watch her reactions to things that were, to him, fairly mundane.

Sandalphon bowed her head in a formal nod, her appreciation unspoken.

”Where we came from was definitely more like Midgar than your world sounds like. We also don’t really have anything that could be described as magic, or dragons or even androids. There are pretty basic robots, but they’re never really more than a simple learning program or remote controlled thing stuffed behind a metal shell. Nothing sentient, at least.” Akane nodded, looking over the different stalls to see if there was anything she was interested in.

“Yeah, but we do have the coolest superheroes in the world, the Phantom Thieves!” The girl cheered. “I am their biggest fan! I even do a livestream dedicated to them! The Phantom Phreaks! Hehehhehe!” Akane giggled happily, remembering their return and their takedowns of some seriously high-profile targets before everything changed. “Dad…do you know what’s gonna happen? Are…we gonna get to go home?”

Zenkichi sighed, frowning. ”It’s…pretty complicated. We don’t know what’s gonna happen if we stop Galeem, that…thing, that caused all this. There’s a group of people working towards the same goal as us, but…we don’t know how much we can trust their intentions, either. Or what’ll happen if we win. But if we don’t…we’re trying to figure out what to do from there. I think Sakura and Karin are trying to hedge their bets in making that new city.”

Akane’s enthusiastic hubbub about the Phantom Thieves brought to mind something Sandalphon had heard just minutes ago, and steering the conversation back toward lighter matters than the worlds’ fate felt prudent. “I believe that Midna just mentioned these heroes of yours,” she mentioned to Akane as the three headed toward the market. “It would seem that the Phantom Thieves have been an immense help to the campaign against Galeem, but are currently operating elsewhere. Once I establish contact with them, I promise that you will be the first to know. Perhaps you could even meet them face to face.” She paused for a moment, an idea occurring to her that might benefit them both. “It sounds like you’re very knowledge about the Phantom Thieves. Since I myself wish to know more, please feel free to tell me all about them. There is no such thing as too much detail.”

By then, the trio had reached the marketplace. Rather than a massive, jostling, noisy throng of hawkers and hagglers like the bazaar of Al Mamoon, this long row of open-air stalls reflected the more humble, communal, and relaxed nature of Everdream Valley itself. As the chief place for the Valley’s many producers to offload their choicest or surplus commodities, the market boasted an incredible variety of goods on sale. Though eager to sample the local honey, Sandalphon saw no reason to rush past all the market’s offerings, and happily browsed the stalls while Akane regaled her with her near-encyclopedic Phantom Thief knowledge.

“And nobody really knows exactly how they do it, but they call it ‘Stealing Desires’, and apparently they’re not the only ones who figured it out, because after they stopped being active for a while, other people started stealing desires, too, but from regular people! And they were manipulating them into buying their merch, or watching their show, or voting for them! But the Phantom Thieves realized what was going on and came back to make them stop! But what I really love the most about them is that they don’t just fight people abusing power. They inspire others to be stronger, too!” As Akane continued telling Sandalphon all about her favorite heroes, Zenkichi listened with a smile. Knowing what he did about Joker and the other Thieves, it really wasn’t a surprise that Akane looked up to them. They were good kids. He just hoped they were doing alright.

Bright colors, flowing mists, and intriguing spells brought the eye toward one popular attraction immediately, the Liquid Miracles potions store. It enchanted customers with intricately decorated bottles of all shapes and sizes, the mixtures within aglow with sorcery. Perhaps most remarkable of all was the shop’s proprietor, a bronze construct with distinctive swirly cheeks whose glass belly full of bubbling brew made him look like a magic potion himself. His stall even included a DIY station, where customers could mix together different premade ingredients themselves to see what magical effects they could cook up under the supervision of a strict-looking owl. As Sandalphon watched, a young man tried his potion and immediately shrank to half his size, much to his friends’ amusement.

Next up, a blocky stall run by a curious, large nosed fellow -every bit as angular as his shop- offered all sorts of fruits and vegetables in flat pixel form. The villager’s wares included carrots, potatoes, beetroots, pumpkins, apples, and berries. Despite their bizarre, minimalist appearance, they seemed to act and taste just like the real deal. Unfortunately, he didn’t have what Sandalphon was looking for, and her attention soon wandered to a stall that specialized in ‘plorts’. It offered an array of the strange polyhedrons via its expansive market board, each boasting uniquely useful material properties. These plorts seemed to come from slimes, and there were even a few of the sludgy critters for sale for the right price. And that was just the beginning; there were pals for sale, either as pets or labor, handmade goods like woven baskets and knitted sweaters, and even a stall with a live Woolipop where customers could get a cone of its ultra-sweet wool, carefully spun out to the airy consistency of cotton candy.

Akane’s eyes caught the stall with the Pals in it, locking onto a particularly fluffy and adorable pal: A Cremis. “Dad, it’s so cute!” She cooed, looking at the vulpine pal with figurative hearts in her eyes. “It’s a shame we couldn’t have any pets before…” Slumping her shoulders a little, Akane shrugged. “But we didn’t have one in Japan either, sooo I guess it’s whatever.”

Zenkichi was not fooled. He was dedicated to being more attentive given this third chance to be a good father as well, so he tapped Akane’s shoulder and gestured to the stall, turning his head to Sandalphon. ”Gonna check this out real quick. Shouldn’t take long if you just wanna look around or something.” Walking casually up to the stall, he looked over the different pals they showcased, but his eyes kept darting back to the Cremis Akane was cooing over before he turned to the proprietor. ”So, how much for the fluffy little guy?” He asked, gesturing to the two.

“The Cremis? 680 Zenny. I’ll take Kins, too, assumin’ you’re from Midgar. Comes with some food and a Pal Sphere to keep it in when you don’t want it runnin’ around, too. They ain’t tough, but they ain’t high-maintenance either, so they’re jus’ fine for a pet.” Checking his balance, Zenkichi frowned when the pretty pitiful sum showed itself: he’d been having a rough couple of weeks when the Seekers showed up, and was pretty sure he’d been fired by now, if HR was still running. He did, however, have a couple thousand in Yen in his wallet, and inquired if that would work.

“Uhhh, lemme just take a quick look.” Checking the paper money and opening up a small notebook to examine, the shopkeeper nodded with satisfaction and opened up his register to get Zenkichi his change. “One-to-one exchange rate with Zenny. I’ll give ya back your Yens directly, but your change is gonna be in Zenny. Just try not to get it too mixed up, though most places’ll take a buncha different kindsa money.”

Thanking the shopkeeper, Zenkichi went over to Akane and her newfound friend with a smile, dropping his hand on her head. ”Surprise, Akane.” He preened as the shopkeeper got a bag of food for them, as well as a Pal Sphere which he used to ‘capture’ the Cremis.

“All yours, kid. Take good care of her.” The man said, offering the sphere with a smile.

“...Wait, what?” Akane looked between the two, confusion and disbelief on her face. “You’re…you’re serious?”

Zenkichi just nodded with a small smile. ”Yeah. I just…it looks like things are gonna get weird for a while, until we find a place to settle in. Figured you could use a friend who isn’t gonna be running off constantly and getting into fights every day, ya know? I know it doesn’t make up for…everything, but…gotta start somewhere, right?”

Akane just stared down at the Pal Sphere in her hand, biting her lip as she tried to process what just happened. After enough time that Zenkichi started to worry a bit, she turned around and gave him a quick hug, before backing off like he was radioactive and releasing the Cremis from its Sphere to fuss over it. “Oh my goodness you are so cute! And we get to be friends from now on! Oooh I gotta come up with a name for you!!!”

Love ya too, Akane. Zenkichi just though, smiling lovingly at his daughter. Given how things had been between them…that hug was a lot. And even if neither of them would say it, they both knew it well.

While the two went about their acquisition of a brand new pal, Sandalphon lingered nearby rather than going off on her own. Though she pretended to be browsing nearby stalls, her rather paltry efforts made her curious observation of father and daughter all the more conspicuous. The archangel paid special attention to their shared interactions, noting the way they looked at and treated one another. Neither expressed their affection out loud, but their bond seemed endearingly clear in the way Zenkichi cared for his daughter; he expressed his love with a gift, expending a chunk out of his seemingly limited funds to satisfy Akane’s unspoken wish. Such trust, appreciation, and understanding…surely that must be the very picture of love. In Sandalphon’s entire life, she had achieved something like that with just two people: her sister Metatron, and Regina, her pactbound human among the Apostles. By now, it felt like they’d been gone forever, and the archangel found herself wistful with longing.

When Zenkichi and Akane were ready to move on, Sandalphon conveniently happened to be right there. “Oh, hello again.” She knelt down in front of Akane’s Cremis, and though the fluffy little critter shied away at first, it edged forward to sniff Sandalphon’s fingertips before consenting to a caress. The archangel’s pupils became hearts. “Very affectionate. Did you come up with a name?”

Smiling happily as Sandalphon pet her new Pal, Akane nodded thoughtfully. “Yes. I’m going to call her Maru.”

Zenkichi couldn’t help but let out a little chuckle. ”Round, huh? Yeah, I guess that fits.” The thing was basically a big ball of fur, after all.

“An excellent name,” Sandalphon decreed.

It wasn’t long, of course, before the three found exactly what the archangel wanted: a beekeeper’s stall, run by a bearded man who bore a surprising resemblance to Goldlewis. “If you want honey, you came to the right place!” He offered the archangel a jar of viscous liquid that shone with a faint pinkish-orange light, the gentle, dreamlike hues of a sunset sky. “This here’s honey from Beegardes, made usin’ Saffronia flowers. The blossoms glow at night, just beautiful, and lemme tell ya, the honey tastes just as good. A lovely treat for a lovely lady, eh?”

As Zenkichi and Akanae stood by, they gradually became aware of a familiar, tantalizing smell. Not far away stood the source: a Japanese-style ramen stall with an open kitchen, run by a squat, mustached, red-faced man who crafted his dishes on the spot with the aid of supplementary robot arms. The stall featured a short line and a tantalizing menu, each piping-hot, aromatic bowl more mouth-watering than the last.



Without realizing, Zenkichi and Akane had begun to gravitate towards the ramen stall, the smells of home pulling them away from their angelic companion. Looking over the menu, Zenkichi let out a long breath. ”Oh, man, I could go for a ramen bowl for sure . How about you, Akane?”

Her new friend back in its Sphere, owing to her propensity to wander a bit, Akane nodded as she stared at the ramen stall’s menu, looking over the different options. “The green pepper chicken sounds good.”

”I was looking at the Smoked BBQ noodles, myself. Let me get us some. Oh, one sec actually.” Turning to look back at Sandalphon, he waved and called over to her. ”Sandalphon! Wanna get some noodles? My treat!”

In the end, the archangel vacillated very little before heeding the beekeeper’s recommendation, even if the special Saffronia honey came at an inflated price. After her hard-fought victory in Midgar, not just over the Guardian but over her stagnant, ignorant life in Galeem’s shadow, Sandalphon supposed she could indulge herself just once. The vendor was wrapping up her purchase in brown paper and twine when Zenkichi’s call reached her, bidding her look in his direction. “Noodles…?”

After accepting her parcel in a little bag, she headed over to the ramen stall that so captivated the others. Though not at all familiar with this kind of cuisine, she could tell at a glance that they all appeared to be savory pasta dishes immersed in broth, flavored with various ingredients. Sandalphon generally preferred sweet things, and she genuinely believed that eating honey exclusively was the most efficient diet, but not for one nanosecond did the archangel actually consider turning Zenkichi down. He was offering her noodles out of the kindness of his heart, and they were free, meaning that this life-sustaining meal was a gift–an expression of how he felt toward her. For a brief moment, though longer than last time, her pupils became sparkles again. “You’re too kind,” she told him. “I would be honored to partake of your generosity. I hope you’ll allow me to return the favor in the future.”

She chose the Pumpkin Soup Noodles, figuring that it would be wise to ease into consuming salty, fatty foods. The moment the cook received the trio’s order, he got straight to work. His robotic arms moved with uncanny speed and dexterity, working in perfect tandem with his real arms to process ingredients and assemble dishes with astonishing precision, a dance of culinary mastery. Even Sandalphon, so perceptive that her eyes could track his every move, fully believed the chef to be employing some sort of magic. In mere moments, he set down bowls of Smoked BBQ Noodles for Zenkichi, Pumpkin Soup Noodles for Sandalphon, and Green Pepper Chicken Noodles for Akane with theatrical aplomb, his mechanical arms clapped together over his head as if blessing the food for his customers.

The three couldn’t get to a nearby bench fast enough. ”Itadakimasu!” “Itadakimasu!” The Japanese pair chorused, smiles on their face at the taste of home, barely taking a moment to pause before digging in. After shoveling some noodles and pork into his mouth, Zenkichi paused and turned to Sandalphon. ”Back in our world, we say that in our country. It’s a way of showing our respect to the people who made our food.” With that slight bit of exposition about their culture, he dug back in.

Sandalphon nodded sagaciously. “Ita…itadakimoss.” Then she helped herself, albeit with considerable more restraint than the others. Her worrying overconsumption of hot coffee had numbed her to the broth’s warmth, but most of these flavors were an all-new experience.

A bit of the way through their meal, Akane slowed her eating to a stop, turning to the angelic woman with her and her father. “So, uh, Sandalphon. You mentioned the…world…you came from was rather medieval? Compared to Midgar, at least. What was it like?” While he didn’t stop eating, Zenkichi notably slowed down and turned his attention towards Sandalphon’s answer.

After covering her mouth with one hand in order to maintain some small semblance of decorum as she slurped up some noodles, Sandalphon swallowed and dabbed at her lips with a handkerchief. “My homeland, Grastaea, is a world defined by the relationship of humans and dragons. Long ago, the dragons who ruled over nature warred with humans over the course that the world would take. However, a threat emerged that forced both sides to work together, leading to the first pact between human and dragon, a bond of trust between Ilia and the Holyworm Elysium that came to be called ‘Dragalia’. Thus, human and dragon brought about an age of peace and cooperation. Until more recently, but that is in and of itself a long story, and am sorely lacking in detail.” She paused for a moment as she chewed on a red date, relishing its sweetness. “More to the point, I suppose, Grastaea is a beautiful realm of trackless fields, ancient forests, towering mountains, and glorious kingdoms, filled with magic, danger, and mystery.” She glanced at Maru, who patiently sat at her owner’s feet and silently begged for food, then up at Akane. “Does that answer your question?”

Akane nodded, gently rubbing Maru’s head and looking around before grabbing a piece of egg and holding it over the Cremis’s mouth, dropping it in with a smile. “Yes, I think that does. Japan…where we come from, can be like that. We have a lot of mountains, and forests, but we also have a lot of big cities and land that people use. We don’t have anything like the weird psychic stuff Midgar had, or some of the more really high-tech stuff, but you can get almost anywhere in the world within a couple of days. If you have the money.”

After that, the conversation subsided somewhat as the girls realized that their ramen would soon cool off. By now, Sandalphon felt more comfortable around the other two, and them around her as well, so rather than feeling the need to fill an uncomfortable silence with small talk, the trio could enjoy the tasty food, seaside breeze, and overall lovely day. Trying to let go of her tension, the archangel relaxed on the bench, her legs crossed and her halo glowing softly as she savored her noodles one mouthful at a time. For now, shadows of the past and worries for the future seemed as far away as Midgar itself.

Well, a place like this, peaceful and almost saccharin to Roland, was new to him. As such, he did enjoy the food presented to him, but often waited for others to take a bite before he tried any himself. City life messed him up bad when it came to trusting something that was 'too good to be true'. At least Susie was a lot more trusting than he was, having no paranoia herself besides a curious glance. Blazermate, being unable to eat, didn't join Roland in the restaruant, instead just floating around the docks taking in the sights and finding something fun for everyone to do later.. Granted the menu of items in the restauraunt they were lead to was... odd to say the least. None of the three had seen any of these items before and Roland matched Goldlewis' confusion at the menu items being one of the group who actually needed to eat. Susie, being the sweet tooth that she was, decided to go along the docks to see what all the stands had for sweets and everything.

"Hm... I guess I'll try the herb roast. Both if you could." Roland said. You wouldn't think it by his exterior, fighting style, or mannerisms, but Roland was quite the foodie. If the other patrons were finding this food delicious, he was going to try it and see what the hubub was about. While he was from Midgar, and had tried a fair amount of different foods there, he hadn't left the city so this was all new stuff to him.

Much like the others though, he waited for his food and tried it. Well, it was different for sure. Not as good as some stuff in the City, but still not bad. And also not nearly as ethically and morally questionable which was a relief. You don't want to know how the hotdogs are made or so the saying goes, but Roland was unfortunate enough to learn that truth and had to live with it. Granted he often forgot his past when it came to food in most cases so... well, he was enjoying himself for once. Even offering to finish something of someones who had something he hadn't tried.

Blazermate, drifting along the docks, eventually ran into Susie who was eating some cotten candy and a bit of ice cream. Blazermate had seen Pit and Roxas at one point chasing around a dog, but had only gotten a glancing look at them as she drifted around. She'd have to ask them about that later. Susie meanwhile was just unwinding from having to deal with another fight and escape. "Hey so... I see you like sweet things. Any reason why? I don't eat so..." Blazermate said, looking at Susie having two food items in her hands. The secretary shrugged, saying. "I just like sweet things. I can't really explain food to someone who can't taste though, apologies. " Blazermate shrugged herself, getting that. Still it couldn't hurt to ask, they didn't have too much time for small talk as it had been. The two bots ended up moving down the docks chatting and having a bit of a gossip session about the other group and how the new people of this group would handle the more monstrous of the seekers.

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Sectonia decided she'd go down to the City of Tears with Therion and the others that didn't go to talk to Asgore. She was tired from all the stuff that had been going on with the Radiance and all of that, and really didn't want to stay in this stagnate pond more than she had to. She did try out her new powers from the Radiance on some of the smaller weaker bugs she passed by as she moved through the Dripstone Cave and Ash Lake to see what they did. She'd find that unlike her other spells, these wouldn't be duplicated by her strange mask item. They were far stronger than her baseline abilities though, so she could guess that what power they had, was what they had. It would probably take some special spirits or powers to amplify them more which was both a blessing and a curse. Well, at least, thats what it seemed now. Perhaps like the first spirit she fused with, more powers would reveal themselves. On the plus side, these attacks came out really fast which was nice. Sectonia ended up taking out a couple Goams and a single five legged clam that had appeared to attack, being victim to a rain of swords and laser beams while slowed itself for Sectonia to try out to see if her debuffs still worked when attacking something with these attacks; They did.

Having not taken one of these 'warp pipes' before, Sectonia was a bit hesitant at first, but seeing the others take it with no question, she gave it a try. At first she figured she wouldn't fit, but she'd find that the pipe would expand to her size which was unsettling, strange, and a bit weird. Granted she had gone in long before Jr and Rika got there, so having the bowser tot's reassurance would be a bit helpful since these came from his world, but that was neither here nor there. What really sucked was needing to clean herself after this... travel. But much like what Nadia said before, this was infinity better than the poop and flesh covered dungeon they had gone through earlier to get down here.

Upon making her way to the City from the pipe, she noticed almost right away that the control F had put everyone under had disappeared, meaning it was either concentration based or temporary. Both good things to know. Still, while she had some plans int his city, taking up her idea before she was rushed out by F to annex this place, she had to go get herself cleaned in the hot springs. She'd also drag the others kicking and screaming to get cleaned if they were going to spend any amount of time in this city as well. It wouldn't do to have her minions look disgusting when she had plans here.

Unlike the others, Midna didn’t have time to relax away from Midgar right away. No, she was going back again to pick up some Bridges people to bring them out to the Virgin Victory so they could do… some kind of technology thing. She wasn’t sure really what the specifics were, nor why the little portable device she was lent to organize where they’d meet up wouldn’t just do the job either, but she had to assume they knew their stuff.

At any rate, that left her time to kill inside the city itself, and it wasn’t exactly in a state where she could go to the spa either. The mood of the city was… tumultuous to say the least. Not only had the people been told that it would be unwise to stay, they had also learned they did not belong there in the first place. The latter certainly helped motivate acting on the former, but it wasn’t like people could just up and leave on short notice, especially when other people were trying to also do the same. The amount of congestion that was causing also meant that the Bridges people were going to have a problem getting to her.

She spent the start of this just sort of fiddling with the Eliacube, turning it this way and that, putting a little mana into it, and just generally trying to figure it out more. She didn’t get very far, and eventually put it away again, though her mind kept drifting back to it like a puzzle she just couldn’t crack.

TO try and distract herself instead she tried to do a bit of self reflection on how they could have done things better in Midgar, only to realize something ”wait… the psi-fish wouldn't have gotten Karin‘s message down there”

Indeed, the strange psychic creatures, the previous victims of Midgar’s attempts at mass producing psychic soldiers via raising and slaughtering of beings who could grant psionic abilities via fusion before they’d switched to pokemon, were still down in the polluted reservoir. They too were now free from Galeem, and yet unlike everyone up top, entirely unaware as to what that meant, not to mention unaware that the city was being evacuated. Not that they could really evacuate alongside those above, given what had been done to them and the enmity that had caused, but still.

They deserved to know.

Her expected guests might have been slowed by the city’s refugee packed streets, but the princess was not. Traveling first by portal to their Seiran Clinic hideout, and then hopping from shadow to shadow, the princess effortlessly made her way down through the undercity, and then down into the reservoir below.

This had, admittedly, been a bad idea last time, but without any footsloggers in tow, she didn’t have to worry about navigating the perilous walkways and pipes that they’d need to get up and down last time, nor about being ambushed by the creatures living down there in the dark.

That didn’t mean she was safe. Last time she was here one of the bigger psi-fish had done … something to her, that left her with a missing any form of memory regarding a short yet impactful space of time, one during which she’d had to apparently be carried up and out by the others due to her unresponsive state.

Not a thing she could have happened again now that she was on her own.

So, not getting seen, that was for sure on the top of her list of priorities. But that was fine. All she needed to do was be a messenger from the shadows.

The psi-fish weren't exactly hard to track down moving at her speed, what with them glowing and all. So in a short amount of time she’d found, one, and then from it hopped to larger and larger groups till she found a swirling storm of psionic energy managed by numerous psi-fish that was slowly coalescing into a titan of psi-fish kind



It looked to be a slow, slow process, but one that was nearing completion, and whatever it was, she was quite sure it was another point in favor of the people of the city leaving as soon as possible. Still, even if this was built specifically to spell devastation upon those above, the psi-fish deserved a chance to take another path, especially the one that had now opened to them.

So she did her best to share the news via shouting it out of the shadows, and repeatedly changing her location to avoid being located as she did so

”Listen to me. I’m one of the ones you let go before and I’ve come back to tell you that Shinra and psych-OFF are dead and the city is dying because of what we returned to the world above” which she suspected they might take as good news, given the misery that had inflicted upon them. It was hard to tell the actual reaction though, given they did not so much speak as project thoughts, a thing she did not want to happen because it meant they might be able to project other things in to control her. Still, it certainly caused a stir among them, the psi-fish forming up defensively in response to her intrusion.

”The people there are free of the delusions of Galeem, the thing that made the world the way it was, that stole your ancestors from their home and put them in this one where they could be captured and killed by Shinra. Now they are going to leave this cursed trap of a city Galeem put them in, and you should too. With them gone, the Others, those things in the tunnels that eat brains, which rain down onto the city above in far greater numbers, will have nowhere to hunt except down here. You should go, find a better home. The machines to the south are in disarray. Punch through what’s left of them, and find the freedom of the ocean past the mountains to the east, to the left, of their bases. It's a great expanse of clean water, it might even be where they took your people from, where you might even find the rest of your kind” she called down. It was not a safe way by any means, but it was the only way they could go, and, she hoped, one that most of the civilians from the city would not be going to. It would be rough, but it had to be better than here, surly?

Either way, she was sure she’d had some kind of effect now, as the mostly organized defensive line was wavering, turning to what she thought was discourse. Or it was just confused by the way she’d moved after every sentence to avoid being located. They were certainly trying to find her at least, several of the larger hunters, the same kind that had locked down her mind, where roving through the air trying to track her down while the ranged psi-fish held their crumbling defensive formation.

With them narrowing down the positions she could broadcast from, and the information more or less delivered, she decided she’d done all she could, retreating from the storm and going back the way she came.

After that, all she had to do was wait a little bit longer for the Bridges team to show up, and she could get on with her job. The actual task was done in very short order, the princess ferrying the humans from the city to the docked ship in the blink of an eye, and then leaving them to get on with their task.

With that done, it was finally time for some well deserved RnR. Or, more specifically, lunch. She’d helped take down 2 pseudo-gods and an entire city state on just a donut, and she was absolutely famished as a result.

As the other Seekers began splitting off into groups, or going off on their lonesome, Geralt looked out over the sea. Part of her, likely the part of her that was once an Abyssal Princess, stared wistfully out onto the water, longing to feel it once more, or to see her Ordnance Platform again. The massive weapon was a great help in the Deep Blue, and of no use whatsoever in Midgar. Her thoughts were broken by Goldlewis's announcement, but rather than join him, Geralt went off on her own, walking along the beach in contemplation.

Fusing with Karen was a risky move, with the benefit of some hindsight, though she wondered just how deep a mistake it could be. Karen Travers was powerful, possessing numerous psychic abilities, though it was her understanding that such a thing was unnatural among psychics, who normally only commanded one, and used technology to share their powers with others. Was Karen somehow able to store abilities he'd shared with others? Would she be able to do something similar?

Perhaps of greater import was the damage such continual fusion had done to her armor, and the fact that she was now a woman. They'd have to see if they could get Peach back to normal, so that Geralt could also go back to normal. Though, she'd be keeping at least the Spirit of the Orphan, and perhaps Ishmael. No point in forcing that responsibility upon another. And although fusing with her had triggered the transformation, Ishmael's abilities had proven rather useful thus far. The Abyssal princess was another matter, gratuitous size and claws aside, Geralt had felt slow and...not quite clumsy, but less agile than before. Given how much of her fighting style revolved around dodging and parrying, that would have to be remedied. If somebody else so chose, they could make use of the Ordnance Platform. As overwhelming and useful as its power had been, Geralt wasn't one for standing around and protecting a giant cannon. Maybe she could be used as a Striker?

Her wandering brought her near a bar named the Dreamjolt Holstery, and Geralt paused, thinking. She could certainly use a drink, and taverns often had some food to go with the drinks they served. Entering the establishment, she found a seat at the bar and waited, looking around. It was certainly a nice place, well-kept and playing enjoyable music.



"Hello there, lovely. I'm Siobhan, the bartender. What can I get you?" Asked a strangely-dressed woman, evidently the bartender. Geralt perked an eyebrow at the friendly greeting, but decided to ignore it, chalking it up to her personality.

"Not sure. Always been a fan of the harder stuff, but...it looks like you've got something a bit more complex going on." Looking at a small menu, Geralt tried to pick out the drinks that seemed most appealing, but given that she had no idea what most of the ingredients were, it was a bit tough. Ultimately, she settled on a drink called the Wake & Slumber, which boasted a stellar champagne as one of its key ingredients.

"Won't be too long, now. Let me mix that right up for you. Want anything to snack on while you're here?" Siobhan asked, prompting Geralt to check a board on the back wall. After a few moments, she decided on a Giant Bavarian Pretzel. It sounded like it would be nice, and mentioned having a beer-batter cheese for dipping.

"Got something on your mind? Noticed you staring out over the water for a minute there." Siobhan inquired as she put down a nice-looking drink and gestured to the kitchen. "Pretzel won't be long, dear. So. Lot on your mind today?"

Geralt grunted, taking a sip and savoring the flavors, humming in content. "A lot, frankly. Something big just happened in Midgar, and a lot of people are probably going to get hurt because of it. On top of that, I'm still looking for Ciri, and now I just heard that the place my wife was staying at got attacked while I was in Midgar. Just...a rough day, to be frank."

Siobhan gave Geralt a soft smile, nodding. "I'm sorry to hear about your wife. I hope she's alright, though from the way you talk about it, it sounds like you're less worried about her safety, and more about where she was?" Geralt nodded at that, taking another quick drink before replying.

"Yes. Don't get me wrong, Yen can take care of herself, but we thought we found a safe place to stay at between jobs. And frankly, I'm a bit worried about everybody else that was there, too." Siobhan nodded again, closing her eyes for a moment before giving Geralt a friendly pat on the hand.

"That kind of trust is a wonderful thing. I'm sure Yen's a lucky lady to have a wife like you." Geralt's lip twitched at the reminder of her current situation, but she supposed she was technically Yennefer's wife right now.

"Yeah. It just feels like so much happened while I was away, and now I have to go and make sure the world doesn't burn to the ground while I fix it."

"Oh, that's a feeling I am intimately familiar with." Siobhan replied, laughing. "Especially on busy nights. Though I get the feeling you're being a bit more literal than dealing with some drunks." Geralt let out a little chuckle, nodding in response.

"A bit."

In the end, only the taciturn Roland had decided to accompany Goldlewis on his hunt for a slow-paced meal. Although Goldlewis definitely wouldn’t have minded more company for lunch, he found himself appreciating the chance to be more or less alone with his thoughts after so much time spent among his fellow Seekers. With no conversation necessary, nor any need to uphold a certain image of himself, he could afford to relax. Through the window, the cloudy sky seemed to be darkening, and he could hear a faint rumble of thunder in the distance. Considering the time of day, the Pelican Inn probably should have bustled with activity, but for one reason or another an atmosphere of leisurely quiet hung over it today, allowing Goldlewis to recline and contemplate in peace. Though the responsible part of him felt obligated to scrutinize and overthink for the sake of preparedness, and the old war veteran in him urged him not to get too comfortable while danger still loomed, Goldlewis tried to push aside his restless inclinations. However brief this repose might be, and whatever trials lay ahead, he knew that this moment of peace and quiet ought to be enjoyed while it lasted. Of course, his enjoyment of this break increased by quite a lot when the waitress began to arrive with the food.

First Goldlewis received his Dumud Chowder, featuring dense fish rather than clams, lavishly covered with a thick, creamy soup. Its mild flavors, enhanced with Worcestershire sauce and garlic, were a splendid marriage of earth and sea, and it filled the veteran with vigor. In no time at all he downed the whole bowl, leaving him regretful that he’d finished so quickly.

Luckily, his second dish arrived soon after. After whetting his appetite with the tasty seafood stew, Goldlewis dug into the Rushoar Hot Dog with aplomb. It boasted a thick sausage, much more substantial than the typical frankfurter, wedged between fluffy buns and garnished with both relish and mustard. To his surprise, he found the crispy meat itself not just spicy, but a little gamey, laden with the ferocity of the wilderness. As Goldlewis battled and vanquished the big game hot dog, he achieved a feeling of primal satisfaction.

Finally, the Eikthyrdeer Loco Moco arrived, a gravy-smothered burger of ground venison on a bed of rice, itself topped fried egg and green onion garnish, served in a shallow tin. While both of the other foods he tried turned out to be great in their own rights, Goldlewis realized after one bite that this dish was truly something special. The sublime combination struck him as the true epitome of comfort food, rich and decadent. Paired with an ice-cold cola to offset the savory warmth with refreshing sweetness, the dish brought him nothing short of joy. He finished his meal very pleased, his expectations thoroughly exceeded.

Roland, meanwhile, received both dishes at the same time. The herb-roasted Caprity and Lamball were more than superficially similar, as both included sweet wild berries that provided an aromatic, built-in compliment to the flavor of the meat. A discerning palate, however, could differentiate between and individually appreciate the intricacies of chevron and mutton.

When the waitress arrived to check on the two, Goldlewis made his appreciation known. “My compliments to the chef,” he said, smiling as warmly as he could. “A meal like that really hit the spot. Does a body good.”

“I’m glad you like it!” The waitress returned his smile as she handed him his check.

Thirty two hundred and twenty zenny, he read, thinking nothing of it as he reached for his wallet. Once he pulled it out, however, Goldlewis got a sinking feeling. “Uh oh.” He had just twenty thousand on him, and no way to connect to his bank account. Though now that he thought about it, he’d spent most of his savings in order to acquire the Seiran hideout from Moneybags the bear. And what a good, long-term investment that turned out to be. He groaned, squeezing his eyes shut. With all his focus on the conflict in Midgar and the campaign against Galeem, he’d forgotten to pay attention to his finances. He looked up, seeing no staff around but the waitress tending a table. A lesser man might have opted to dine and dash in this situation, trusting in his strength to sort out any trouble, but Goldlewis couldn’t do such a thing. With a sigh he beckoned the waitress over, then explained his predicament.

The woman kept her expression neutral. “I’ll have to speak to the boss. Excuse me.” She disappeared into the kitchen, and Goldlewis sat there, stewing. After another minute, the waitress returned. “Please come with me.” The veteran looked miserable, but he rose to follow her. Twelve dollars wasn’t much in the greater scheme of things, but theft was theft. It fell to him to take responsibility and sort this out.

After being directed into the kitchen, Goldlewis stepped inside. It turned out to be much lower-tech than he imagined, with somewhat rustic electric stoves lit not by gas, but by crew of bright orange Foxparks. Live animals in a professional kitchen came as quite the shock, not to mention a possible health and safety violation, but the boss surprised Goldlewis almost as much. Both the boss and the head chef, the man was a musclebound giant with a wild hairstyle and a mustache that climbed higher than his eyebrows. He seemed larger than life, standing eye to eye with Goldlewis himself, and when he spoke, he did so with a naturally booming voice. “I am Bravo Peperoncine, owner of Pelican Inn!” he announced, turning to face the newcomer. “And you are?”

“Goldlewis Dickinson,” the veteran replied evenly.

Bravo crossed his arms. “So you’re the one, eh? Sounds like you came up a little short, my friend!”

Goldlewis rubbed the back of his head self-consciously. “Yeah…stupid of me. Just had a lot on my mind lately, is all. If there’s any way I could pay off what I owe ya, I’m all ears.”

“Hmm!” Bravo stroked his whiskers, grinning. As he talked, he enhanced his speech with frequent bombastic gestures. “Well, as you can see my cooks are all Foxparks, and Foxparks don’t need money. In other words, I’m not in the habit of paying kitchen staff. How are you at waiting tables?”

Goldlewis narrowed his eyes, not pleased at the way this was going. The knowledge that he’d genuinely screwed up made him uncomfortable, and he wanted to get this taken care of as soon as possible, not be made a fool of. “I don’t reckon I’d get much in tips.”

The chef chuckled. “You may be right. Well, perhaps there’s another way.” He peered more closely at his customer. “You seem like a sturdy fellow. Someone who knows his way around a fight. There are precious few such men around Everdream Valley, and I cannot allow my Undefeated Kitchen Champion Style to lose its edge. Perhaps you can help me hone my skills once more. Spar with me!” He pounded his fists together. “You’ve satisfied your hunger, after all. Satisfy mine, and we’ll call it even!”

Goldlewis breathed in, then cracked his neck, first on one side and then the other. “If that’s all it’d take…I suppose I got some calories to work off, anyhow.”



After a minute or two spent hurtling at high speed through the pitch-black interior of a warp pipe, mostly straight down, the exit finally spit Nadia out–straight into ice-cold water. The shock left her reeling for a moment, but after tumbling for a moment she managed to get her bearings, reorient herself, and swim away from the warp pipe so that nobody else crashed into her on their way out. That was just basic pool etiquette after all, however strange the pool.

Mercifully, the water seemed to be reasonably clean and clear, allowing her to look around. In addition to bright-red cheep cheeps, it featured metal support struts and underwater spotlights that illuminated a submerged section of race track, tilted at an angle that allows its curve to both enter and exit the water. Right now though, Nadia only cared about the ‘exit’ part. She kicked her legs and surged toward the surface, not afraid to spend a little blood if it meant getting out of the drink that much faster. After another moment she burst from the water with a gasp, filling her lungs with air.



The feral clambered out into dark, moist grass, to find herself surrounded by the multicolored glow of bioluminescent mushrooms. Beyond lay the Home of Tears, beautiful in its melancholy. Though brief, her immersion left her with a nagging feeling of familiarity, and now she could see why; this place was none other than the fungal garden surrounding the base of a certain clock tower, and when Nadia looked up she found Gallo Tower looming over her in all its enormity, its ruby-red clock face still broken from the fight against Moebius P the morning before last. She recalled her somewhat ill-advised shortcut back to the bottom, plunging from that immense height down into this very basin. Remembering all this, she couldn’t help but laugh. The events of that day sure seemed bananas at the time, but after Pizza Tower, Mercy Dreams, and the dream battle against the Radiance, her battle against the bedridden bozo was small potatoes. Who could fathom how much nuttier this adventure would get tomorrow?

Sadly, her reminiscence came to an end in a fit of shivering. The unfortunate reality was that in the Home of Tears, being on land wasn’t much drier than being underwater. If anything, the cool cave air on her sopping-wet skin made the chill even worse, despite the lack of wind. As always, the water from Ash Lake high above descended upon the somber city in a terrific deluge, and when Nadia reached back to pull her hood up she got a nasty surprise. “Aw, what? This coat doesn’t have a hood anymore?” Her ears drooped as she stared out through the downpour, totally drenched. Chucho could warm her heart, but not her body, so the two hurried off in search of shelter. “Ugh. At least with P gone, we have free rain of the place.”

Beyond the fungi-filled courtyard lay the Royal Quarter, the city’s well-to-do northern district. The moment Nadia set foot outside, sinking her mantreads ankle-deep in a puddle in the process, she spotted a familiar feline felon hunkered underneath a huge umbrella with Osvald. “Nyaow we’re talking.” She took off at a run, her boots splashing across the carapace cobbles as she made a beeline for the shelter of Therion’s parasol. “Room for one more?” Without waiting for permission, she inserted herself into the pair’s personal space. “Sheesh!” With a sigh of relief she tried -unsuccessfully- to slick her hair back, then settled for wiping the rain from her eyes. While she did notice that Osvald had been freed, right now she had a backlog of rain puns in dire need of delivery. By now, Therion knew to brace himself when he saw Nadia’s eyes alight with mischief. “Bad weather for us cats, huh? I don't mind a little purrecipitation, but I forgot just how hard it rains down here. It’s just nyansense. After we’re outta here, someone’s gotta hang meowt to dry.”

Given both the weather and the one hundred percent chance of additional puns, the Seekers didn’t intend to stick around. Once everyone was present and accounted for, the team could set off through the Home of Tears with Nadia in the lead. After unrolling the map from Cornifer, the feral confirmed that King’s Station lay to the northwest, across a long expanse of ink-black water. With the team at her back, she scampered through rainy streets bathed in the soft pink light of fancy streetlamps atop wrought-iron fences. When everyone reached one of the district’s western docks, Nadia leaped right off the edge and onto the water itself, her rigging deployed to keep her skating weightlessly atop the rippling surface. Chucho joined her, happily floating in the air beside his owner. Rika and Bowser could emulate her, and several others could just fly, but for those less fortunate a solution lay close at hand.

“Over there!” she called, directing her friends’ attention down the waterway. A giant paper boat the size of a catamaran was piloting itself toward the dock, letters trickling from its ink-stained pages that rose into the sky like smoke to hang amidst the downpour overhead. The others would need to time a jump to get aboard, but it wasn’t at all difficult, and even if they missed this boat was just one of five or six on this waterway, ceaselessly making its rounds in a counter-clockwise loop up from Fountain Central toward King’s Station and back.

Soon, the team reached King’s Station. The place looked every bit as dark and abandoned as Nadia remembered it, clearly seldom-used by the Home of Tears inhabitants. She led her friends through a dark passage past faded signs and broken furniture to the station itself, a room of green and tan tiles where a falling water spun a large waterwheel, then flowed off down a channel through an opening in the right-side wall, where an aqueduct suspended over a pitch-black abyss led off into the darkness. Out of everyone here, only Nadia knew that the aqueduct somehow looped back around, feeding right back into the waterfall that turned the wheel. Jesse had left them after all, and both Rubick and Artorias were dead. It was a sobering thought, almost as dreadful as the otherworldly creature that lurked at the end of the shadowy tunnel to Platform B. “There’s one of those things down there,” she warned the others. “Something like Robin, but...different. It called itself the Nowhere Monarch. Pretty freaky.” If the others really wanted she could help deal with it later, but right now she concerned herself with Magikrab. The little crustacean happily opened the way to Platform B when prompted, where a stag waited to spirit the Seeker away through the Stagmer-line back to Dirtmouth.

Once back up top, the urge to go out and breathe deep of the Chasm’s crisp mountain air tempted her, but Nadia remained with the others as they switched trains to connect to the Nyakuza Metro. Riding a giant stag beetle had its charms, sure, but Nadia much preferred kicking back in a subway train pulled by a giant orange cat. For a good long moment, she stared at the do-not-pet sign hanging from the kitty’s harness, her arms crossed. “Well, that sign can’t stop me because I can’t read,” she lied. She quickly patted the cat, then hurried after the others with a smile on her face. Once everyone boarded, its puller gave a loud meow, then began to move. As it pushed through the tunnel’s magical cat flap and into extradimensional space, Nadia settled in for the ride.

Of course, getting comfortable proved difficult whilst soaked to the bone. The trip so far hadn’t been conducive to conversation, but with nothing to do but sit and wait Nadia aired out her thoughts straight away. “Ugh, I’ve gotta get a new outfit,” she groaned, peeling off her sodden trench coat. The leotard beneath functioned as a one-piece swimsuit, not exactly appropriate for a train ride, but anything beat catching a cold in waterlogged clothes. The coat plopped down on the empty seat beside her, water pooling around it. “My jacket used to be sick as hell, but my fusions sure did a number on it, huh. Now it ain’t fashionable or functional.” She removed and upended her mantreads to get the water out, then busied herself detaching her limbs to air dry them via vigorous waving.

By the time the train pushed through another cat flap and entered the Metro, Nadia herself had dried off, but her coat was still soaked through. Grumbling, she retied her belt around her waist and left with her coat draped over her arm. The moment she deboarded, though, her spirits rose once more.



After all, the Nyakuza Metro was a bustling, neon-and-brick metropolis made by cats and for cats, a feline-themed paradise. The yellow-eyed, black-furred metro cats seemed to be going about their business as usual, and though the place possessed a transitory atmosphere, Nadia Fortune felt right at home.. She darted past a public scratching post and slid to a stop beneath a set of heat lamps arranged like an old-fashioned hair salon. She slid a pon into a slot, plopped down in the seat, and basked in its warmth. Tantalizing smells drifted from the Metro’s ubiquitous food trucks, and curiosities lay almost everywhere one looked. As she sat, Nadia found herself engaged by a digital standee playing a public safety announcement. It captivated passers-by with a red dot that darted back and forth across text that read Stay alert! The Metro can be a dangerous place!

The realization made her smile ruefully. Though things looked pretty harmless at the moment, she and the others knew just how dangerous this place could be after Rush Hour. Once that Consul put a hit on them, it had been a mad scramble to escape the Metro before the Seekers drowned in the literal tide of money-crazed cats. When Nadia turned her gaze upward, however, she found nobody silhouetted against the giant clock face that overlooked the crowded streets. Only the Metro, which stretched up hundreds and hundreds of feet, its higher levels dominated by cat tower apartments. The eternal night that shrouded this indoor city suggested a roof of some kind high above, but Nadia sure couldn’t see it.

She turned her attention to a Metro schedule board instead, rising from her chair for a closer look. “Gerudo…Gerudo…bingo! Looks like it’s on the Yellow Line,” she observed. When she inspected the route details, her eyebrows shot up. “Hey, Carnival Town’s on that line! That’s where I crashed for a while. We should go there too, it’s super fun!” She turned toward the others. “I guess we gotta grab enough pons for a Yellow Line Pass, huh? No problem.” Just like last time, the green gems could be found just about everywhere in the Metro, though most demanded some agility. Well, a little parkour never hurt anyone. Full of pep, Nadia started doing stretches, readying herself for another quick romp through Nyakuza Metro.



“Hey, Tora…he-eey…hey!”

When Mayer’s voice finally got through to him, Tora jolted as if forcefully woken from deep slumber. He might have fallen from his stool if the Anaty engineer hadn’t already put her arm behind him, anticipating that she’d startle the poor guy despite her best attempts. Tora shook his head, rubbing his eyes, then peered at her blearily. “Meh, meh. What want?”

The young woman wore a rueful smile, her amusement only masking the concern on her face. “I want you to stop overworking yourself so much, for one. It won’t do any good for anyone if you collapse from exhaustion, you know.” Mayer sighed. “Buuut you’re not gonna listen, are you? Not until Poppi is back.”

“That right.”

Mayer looked down at the table in front of Tora, her eyebrows furrowed. Ever since his arrival in the experimental division of Vandelay Campus, the nopon had adamantly refused to attend to anything beyond his most basic needs, and to his credit his single-minded obsession had borne fruit. With Zando’s demise the company’s project pipeline ground to a complete halt, freeing up his new friends Mayer and Macaron to give Tora’s own endeavor everything they had. In just short one day the abundant resources, tools, and technologies of Research and Development had allowed him to concept, fabricate, and assemble an entirely new chassis for his beloved companion. The impressive results lay on the workstation before them, like a patient on an operating table, but this could hardly be called a finished project. In some ways the machine could be considered an improvement, being professionally crafted in a full-scale facility rather than cobbled together in a hobbyist workshop. It boasted the finest hardware available as well; without the ether tech of his homeland, Tora had given up on replicating his grandfather Soosoo’s Ether Furnace in favor of a reciprocating Vandelay reactor, enabling digistruction and a high level of throughput.

Of course, the makeshift team couldn’t come up with a Vandelay analog for every aspect of the original. The thing that lay before Tora was still just lifeless metal. Everything that went into creating it only foreshadowed the true challenge: rewriting Poppi’s source code from scratch. It was a monumental task, an impossible one, and it brought Tora great anguish. Even after hours of trying, he’d made almost no progress. After all, even if he really could recreate every aspect of her personality down to the most minute detail, would the robot that came online really be Poppi? Or would it just be a copy? An imitation? Tora was no philosopher, but he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that Poppi possessed something that couldn’t be recaptured by mere code.

Mayer didn’t want to think about it. Though she treasured her Meeboos like pets, they didn’t even capture the significance of the animals that inspired them, let alone a human. The fact that this fuzzy round nopon managed to make a simulacrum so much like a human in the first place boggled her mind. Now that he’d lost her, how could he ever recreate that? In her own experience, losing something as simple as a blueprint and having to recreate it was enough to fill her with despair. But convincing Tora to abandon his obsession seemed almost as impossible. Still, she felt obliged to try.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?” She gestured toward the door. “Only a few hours ‘til Midgar goes dark. I know the geothermal power down here’s enough to the lights on however long you need ‘em, but the tech’s not the point. Me and Macaron, we got into this to help people, and the people are going. Wherever they end up, that’s where we need to be.” Mayer gave him a warm smile. “I mean, you’re clearly some kinda genius. You could really help people.”

If anything, Tora seemed ashamed. “...That okay, meh. Tora can’t help anyone if Tora not even help self. Please go ahead, meh. Tora stay until Poppi is back.”

Mayer took a deep breath and hugged the nopon, squeezing him goodbye. Though happy to be a ray of sunshine wherever she went, there were some clouds so dark that even she couldn’t break through. Pushing any harder in this situation would just be in bad taste. “Good luck, Tora,” she told him, gathering her things to leave. Her Meeboos crowded around her, beeping as they jostled and played. Her small stature really belied just how much stuff she could carry all across her person. “I hope you find her again soon.”

Then Mayer was gone. Tora pulled his AR goggles down, and got back to work. The virtual environment employed by the PGR-0101 units in R & D enabled ultra high speed development, but even with such incredible tools at his wingtips Tora’s progress continued to be agonizingly slow. He mostly just sat and stewed, staring at the chassis in front of him, painfully aware of just what it was missing, as well as just how unattainable that was. Tora didn’t even realize he nodded off until he crashed face-first into the workstation. His stool slid out from beneath him with a loud scrape, and the next moment the nopon tumbled to the floor. When he pulled the goggles from his head, tears soaked into the fur of his cheeks.

“Meh, meh, meh,” Tora moaned, struggling to get up. “Mayer? Macaron? …Mr. Svarog? Anyone!?” But no, they were all long gone, friends both new and old. Around him the walls of the engineering workshop enclosed him like a prison, full of nothing but junk. He gave up and lay there on the floor, surrounded by his failure, completely and utterly alone.

In the near-total silence, quiet except for his sniffles, Tora heard something new. Click, click, click, click. Sharp, light footsteps, echoing down the hall and through the open door. He rolled into a sitting position. “M-Mayer?”

But no, that couldn’t be it. His Anaty acquaintance wore sneakers, not heels. But who could this be?

A black shape blotted out the hallway lights. Then it swept into the room, tall but not quite shapeless, and Tora realized that it must be someone clothed and hooded in black. He suddenly recognized the telltale uniform and blinked in surprise, his sorrow turned to alarm. “Meh, meh!?”

“Relax, furball,” the black-coated woman told him, a slight edge to her voice. She seemed to recognize this, and tried to sound more gentle, difficult though it was. “Today, I’m just a delivery gal. Here, someone wanted you to have this.” She pulled a small package from her robe and tossed it toward him. “Happy birthday.”

The package bonked off Tora’s head and fell into his wings. He took it in his wings, his expression quizzical. “It not Tora’s birthday. Tora not think so, at least…”

“Who said it was your birthday?”

The Organization XIII member waved her hand at the parcel, and Tora began to unwrap it. As he pulled off the strings and peeled back the layers, he became aware of a glow from within, faintly shining with all the colors of the rainbow. Finally, with wings trembling, he tore apart the last layer of paper. Inside glimmered a mote of dazzling light, a precious face within.

Tora’s whole body shuddered. His voice quaked. “P….p…Poppi. She’s…she’s…”

“She’s there.” Tora glanced at Xatow when she spoke, equal parts crushed and confused. “You’ve studied the machines, haven't you? The androids, the unmanned gears. The black boxes, you’ve seen them, right? And you’ve gotta know that spirits are data by now, yeah?” She sighed, exasperated. “C’mon, put it together, smarty-pants. That sad little face of yours is starting to piss me off.”

After a moment, Tora gasped. He seized the spirit and hurtled through the workshop, sending various components flying in his mad hunt. Xatow watched the ruckus with her arms crossed, not even trying to be heard over the clamor. When Tora finally found what he was looking for, he practically fell over himself in his haste to get back to the operating table. His stool still lay on the floor, but Xatow reached out her hands and gave him a boost.

Once up on the table, Tora ripped his programming rig from the chassis, then tried to calm down, control his breathing, and slow his pounding heart. Carefully, with utmost precision, he opened the black box. The spirit of a Cyberlife android leaked out like an egg. Once the box was empty he inserted the spirit, sealed it shut, then inserted it onto the chest cavity of the robot chassis before him. After activating the Vandelay reactor, he closed off the machine’s interior, then stepped back, waiting with clenched cheeks as the painstakingly-assembled systems came online. The second trickled by as indicator lights all across the robotic frame began to glow, until finally, the eyes popped open. Their irises were orange, just as designed, but the light that shone through them was electric blue.

Tora stared, not daring to move, nor even to breathe. The fact that a machine produced by three genius engineers managed to turn on was no surprise. Everything hinged on that light, the light behind the eyes as they slid in Tora’s direction.

“...Greetings, Masterpon.”

In an instant, Tora’s heart sank. He could never forget the first words that Poppi ever uttered to him–well, except for that one incident, which certainly wasn’t his fault. Those weren’t words he wanted to hear. Had this eleventh hour miracle only achieved a new beginning, swept clean of everything he’d come to treasure…?

After another moment, Poppi couldn’t contain it anymore. She burst out laughing, her voice high and bright, tinged by an electronic filter but filled with sincere joy. Tora watched, dumbstruck, as she sat up, her smiling face turned toward him.

“Sorry, sorry! The look on your face…! I know, I know, I shouldn’t have scared you like that. But I can’t help it. You know I can’t help teasing you, right?” Poppi reached out and seized the stunned nopon, then hugged him tight. “Ahh…this feels good. You know, I had the strangest dream. It was really scary, I’m so glad it’s over with.” As her diagnostic subroutine concluded, she laughed quietly. “Wow, all new hardware? You’ve been busy, huh. But…weird, I’m not talking like a nopon, am I? My dialector must be broken…”

After overcoming his shock, Tora hugged her too, his tears flowing freely. “Meheheh, it fine, it fine! Not problem at all, meh meh. Tora just happy…so, so happy that Poppi is ba-ha-haaaack!” His voice finally broke, giving way to joyous blubbering.

“Sheesh. All that bawling,” Xatow shook her head despairingly. “You’re going to get your tummy wet.”

Tora and Poppi both turned toward her. The jubilant nopon seemed to see straight through her brusque demeanor. “Without spirit from friend, Tora never have fixed Poppi! Thank you, meh! Thank you thousand times!”

The Organization XIII member shrugged. “Yeah, yeah. Well, we need you guys. They need you, too. So how about we quit moping around here and get a move on?”

Still holding Tora, Poppi gently leveraged herself off the table, trying not to knock too much stuff down onto the floor. Her completed chassis resembled her QT mode superficially, but with predominantly sleek white machine parts on both arms and legs, with both red and yellow accents. Her stylings included a spiky lavender topknot ponytail rather than twintails, and her previous maid elements had been replaced by a more modern headset, ribbon tie, and pleated skirt. Of course, at the end of the day appearances mattered little to either of them. Being together again was enough. “Are we going somewhere?” Poppi inquired.

“I’ve arranged pickup,” Xatow told her, already headed for the door. “So come on. Don’t wanna be late.”

Without further ado she left, leaving the dynamic duo behind. Reunited at last, and happy as could be, Tora and Poppi ran after her, ready to face the future together.

After Midna returned to the ship and finally got away from Midgar, she found herself wandering the town, looking for something specific. Not food, she’d done that before, no she wanted to make use of something that had been languishing in her inventory since the split mountain inorder to solve a certain problem she had.

That was how Midna found herself looking up at a powerful looking woman who was running a smithy on one of the town’s streets.

”Hey, I was looking to get some armor made, specifically for a wolfos of mine. Can you do that? I can supply materials” she enquired. The woman looked thoughtful for a moment, before nodding and giving a thumbs up, before heading Midna a bit of worn paper, much to the princess’s confusion as to the lack of verbal response.

She asked what it's deal was, only for the woman to point at the paper with cheerful insistence, prompting her to examine a small set of images depicting an amateurish if not half bad depiction of the woman herself and a few other figures first conversing with squiggles in speech bubbles representing their speech, only for some abstract force to ‘steal’ the squiggles, leaving them all unable to speak to each other.

Then there was another sequence where they tried to write to each other instead, only for the force to steal their writing as well, leaving them with just drawing and gestures, something that was represented by, among other things, the women drawing this very retelling of her story.

As Midna’s first exposure to the medium of comics, it wasn’t a half bad one.

”That’s terrible” she said once she was done, only to quickly clarify that she ment ”your curse I mean, not the drawings those are really good” which got a laugh out of the woman.

”So, right, I can work with that, if you can work with these” Midna she said, before pulling out all the disparate crafting materials she’d gotten her hands on over her travels; some Chitinous Shell, rolls of draconic Deegahla Hide, a vial of Mordant Dew (a deadly venom), the strange PSI Core and Card that where probably related, the Ice Geode and, a after a moment, also the Other Suppression Data which felt crafting material-y but she really didn’t know if it would be at all useful.

It did feel a bit like a pile of junk now that she looked at it, and it certainly felt like the moment for making use of the other suppression data had passed which she kicked herself about a bit, but she hoped that some of it might come in handy with making use of the rolls of hide.

She also summoned her wolfos who’d be the subject of the crafting for her to examine, explaining ”I use it as a mount, so making the ride smoother on top of making it tougher is a pretty big priority”

The blacksmith nodded, looking the beast over for a few moments, before then going over Midna’s haphazard items pile. The hide was immediately put off to one side after getting an approving nod, as was the shell after she gave it a sniff. As for the rest, well the venom and Ice Geode were put in one pile, and the PSI and other data got some weird looks before she gave an apologetic shrug.

”Yeah I thought so. Maybe the Midgar refugees will be interested if we run into them” Midna said, and was then prompted to give a quick explanation of what had gone down there (without mentioning her own involvement of course)

”So, what’s that pile for?” she then asked, regarding the geode and dew sitting in their own pile. In response the blacksmith pointed at the hide and shell, and then shook her head, before pointing back at the other items and mimicking a sword slash and then flexing her muscular arm.

”Good for making weapons instead? Strong weapons? Huh ok, I could do with a good sword. What can you make? With them” she asked, only to get a shake of the hand gesture she interpreted as meaning ‘not so much’ followed by the blacksmith flicking her hand up, which she interpreted as ”More? Need more materials?” and getting a nod.

It made sense those two where pretty small, she’d probably only get a knife out of them, assuming you could even make an actual weapon out of just those materials

”Well, I could always get some more stuff. Or do you have anything that would go good with them? Iron or bronze or ..?” she asked. In response the smith vaguely gestured at some supply boxes, before giving a thumbs down. When Midna didn't get it, she pointed at the geode again, flexed again, then pointed at the boxes and made a limp wrist gesture.

”So you don’t have anything as good? You sure it wouldn’t be fine to just go with-” she started to ask but the woman shook her head, and then held up a hand before quickly starting drawing something. Midna waited patiently for her to finish, and was then presented with an equation of sorts, only with pictures instead of numbers, with geode + dew + glowing metal and gems equaling a very impressive sword, and one where those two items + wood and scrappy metal equaled a dull blade. With stink lines coming off it.

”Is it really that bad? Surly the good stuff raises up the bad” Midna replied, which got her a raised palm and a headbob of ‘technically’ before the smith pointed at the drawing of the crap sword, then at her items, and then mimicked chucking them in her bin, which made her point well enough

”Be a waste huh?” Midna understood, before shrugging and saying ”fine fine I’ll keep them and keep an eye out for more strong stuff” before directing her attention back to the hide and chitin and asking ”But is that enough for some good armor”

The smith raised one hand up (held flat to the sky,) pursed her lips and did a bobbing nod to indicate it would be ‘pretty good’ before looking about for a few moments and then finding a measuring tape. With it she took a whole bunch of measurements of her beast to get its exact dimensions, and then did some scribbling of a design. She also cracked open a box to reveal some regular leather which she added to the diagram, indicating it was for a comfy saddle, complete with stirrups and a storage pouch. After a bit of back and forth on whether that would be worth it when she had portals, they’d rejigged it so that the pouch mainly acted as a place she could safely open portals without having to launch and catch things. After showing her a few of her weapons in the process of the prior discussion, they even added a set of dedicated weapon holsters for her two auto-pistols. Oh and also strapped a cardboard missile launcher to the back of the armor, and slapped the spit sticker under the saddle when they identified it as being able to empower creatures, resulting in the beast getting a nice little boost in ranged firepower.

After that, there was a brief moment where Midna wondered how in the world they were going to work out a cost, but fortunately while the smith’s words had been stolen, her numbers had not, and so a price of 500 zenny was agreed upon. A fair chunk of her funds, it was true, but freeing up a hand in combat and toughening up her beast were both definitely worth it.

Once they were all done planning, the actual crafting of the armor took a mere 10 minutes. The hide was tanned, making used of the shell as part of the process rather than as additional armor interestingly enough, and then the resulting material was forged into a set of scale mail that covered her beast from snout to tail, while still leaving said tail and snout exposed for sniffing and balancing purposes, along with its legs for unrestricted mobility.

After a quick little test ride around the smithy, the princess was very satisfied with the blacksmith’s. Good, quick and friendly service, and comparatively cheap to boot. She was very much considering popping a portal here specifically so she could stop by again if she had any more crafting needs.

That said, while eminently affordable, the princess wasn’t exactly flush with cash either, and so the transaction left her pretty close to the red. She was flush with stuff however, and so her next step was a quick ride around town till she found somewhere to make some of her own sales. She ended up outside the wagon of a traveling seller of trinkets and baubles because, when you boiled it down, that was most of what she had on offer. That she wasn’t using anyway. The idea of trading away any of her bulging armory didn’t even cross her mind.

A manikin hand and Jester cap where pure novelties truth be told, while she managed to convince the woman that the psi-card and core where going to become valuable now that there was a load of Midgar citizens, many psychics among them, on the way, while the abandoning of the city would also make the Other suppression data rather rare, and thus potentially valuable.

She then quickly stopped by an armor merchant to sell the Horned Ice Helm no one had been interested in as well.

All told she ended up with 3400 more zenny in her pocket, which was absolutely nothing to be sniffed at, that was for sure. Particularly when she had 3 hungry mouths to feed (hers naturally included).

Rather than find somewhere to sit in for a meal, the princess ended up getting her and her two living minions some Mozzarina Cheeseburgers to go, before finding a rooftop to perch on and watch the people below go about their days. Doing so made it fairly easy to find her when it came to rounding up the group, assuming those doing so looked up, and certainly would make it easier to spot anyone else in the group who was out and about as well.

Osvald's stoic expression remained unchanged as he endured the veritable deluge of rain themed puns unleashed upon him, Nadia’s jovial banter and playful wordplay already grating on the scholar's nerves.

‘How annoying,’ he thought to himself while outwardly the broad shouldered mage bit his tongue to bridle his disapproval, slightly his head shook from side to side and he sighed roughly as he kneaded his forehead with blistered and calloused hands Osvald exchanged a look with Therion as if to ask ’Is she always like this?’

Opting to keep his disapproval silent the scholar chose to ignore the feral's frivolous banter only exuding an air of irritation that belied unimpressed look on his face. Fortunately it wasn't the plan to linger in the rain-soaked cobbled streets of the city, so Osvald's patience wore less thin.


In the dark empty ruins King's Station, Osvald couldn't help but marvel at the abandoned state of the place from the quiet hustle and bustle of the city to the dark yawning emptiness of the area, though no tram line awaited them nor tracks could be seen the bell they rang that summoned the stag shouldn't have surprised him.

As the Seekers navigated the tunnels of the Under from the dark melancholy that hung over the City of Tears, the quiet empty ruins of King’s Station and back to the deserted hamlet of Dirtmouth.

Osvald couldn't help but be taken aback by the bizarre sights that surrounded them, from the peculiar methods of transportation to the bright neon lights and signs of Nyakuza Metro. Each new experience seemingly more outlandish than the last, were it not for him being freed he surely would have questioned his very sanity in the face of such fantastical phenomenon.

Merely he took in his surroundings, marveling at the annoyingly bright garish signs and lights of the city that seemed completely parallel to the City of Tears with it's dimly lit streets and tall dark spires that rose above the inky waters below.

The mere thought of frolicking amidst the chaos and revelry of this place struck a nerve deep within Osvald, as a man of knowledge and discipline the scholar detested the frivolity and unpredictability that such places embodied. He found the idea of wasting time and resources indulging in such mindless activity to be of little interest.

With a steely expression on his frowny face, Osvald fixed the feral with a piercing look that spoke volumes about his stalwart disapproval of the idea “Hmph…Sounds like a ridiculous waste of time, we should go to our destination and not indulge in such useless endeavors.” despite the excitement and enthusiasm of his companions he crossed his arms, grumbling ever the party pooper.

In his mind, there were far more important matters at hand than whimsical escapades in a neon-lit metropolis made for felines, Osvald relaxed his shoulders slightly and sighed “If we must then at least find suitable lodgings...” the grizzled man grumbled.

To this day, Ganondorf still couldn’t wrap his head around Warp Pipes. He had to imagine that someone at some point had to put them in place. And while for this world that someone was obviously Galeem, it still left him questioning who put the Warp Pipes in place in Bowser’s home world. Well obviously there was some kind of magic to them that he simply didn’t know how to identify. And regardless of how confusing they can be, they still worked as intended regardless.

And this particular pipe led to a pool of icy cold water in the City of Tears. Luckily Ganondorf was capable of jumping again in midair, so he could use that to maneuver himself onto the dry land rather than have to take a full one ice-water bath like Nadia had done. Being back here was… not exactly something he was thrilled about. These people had tried to kill them in an angry mob a while back, and while that was due to powers beyond their control - it still left Ganondorf just wanting to get out of here as soon as possible. Well, that and an overwhelming desire to get back to the surface and breathe actual fresh air again.

As such, Ganondorf didn’t tarry long in the city. Instead he just went straight to King’s Station so he could be among the first on the stags that would take them back up toward the Under’s entrance.



Now this place was definitely something else. If the Under was dark and dirty, then this Metro place was almost the opposite. Brightly lit with neon, and comparatively a lot cleaner overall. It was inhabited pretty much entirely by cats, but that was only a problem for someone who might be allergic to them. Nadia had to feel right at home among these furballs. After taking one of the trains, the Seekers then learned which line would take them to Gerudo Town courtesy of Nadia reading the map signs.

After that, Ganondorf fanned out on his own briefly. He didn’t know about any of the others, but he could use a meal. Or at the very least a drink. And he quickly figured out that the geo the Seekers had been collecting in The Under was not a usable currency here in the Metro. He did, however, find a currency exchange vendor that would purchase all the geo the warlord had on hand for a different currency he called zenny. ”Fine.” Ganondorf said to the vendor, ”Give me whatever this amount is worth.” The Gerudo went ahead and handed over all 1,450 of his geo, reasoning that he likely wasn’t going back to the Under any time soon and thus had no need to hold onto any of his geo.

The vendor took the geo and counted out 1,233 zenny that they then handed over to Ganondorf. Unfortunately he had no context for what this amount was actually worth but he figured it was enough for a drink at least. He also noted this was not the same thing as the “pons” they apparently needed in order to get a Yellow Line Pass. That meant the Warlord would have to go searching for some eventually. But for now, he needed a break. A brief walk around led him to what looked like a bar - a milk bar to be exact. He supposed that would be the drink of choice in a place inhabited entirely by cats. But it was the items on the menu that got Ganondorf to raise an eyebrow.

”...Really?” the Warlord asked himself, wondering if the Lon Lon Milk name was for real or not. Well, there was only one way to know for sure. Ganondorf sat on one of the barstools and asked for Lon Lon Milk. And sure enough he was served a glass bottle that bore the familiar cow logo of Lon Lon Ranch. So that place existed somewhere in this world? And this made him wonder about what other places from his world he could find. He’d already learned of Gerudo Town, and what he presumed was the surrounding Gerudo Desert. This milk indicated the existence of Lon Lon Ranch. He wondered if maybe Hyrule Castle was standing somewhere in this world too.

As Ganondorf drank, the Lon Lon Milk gave him a feeling. A feeling he didn’t think he’d find in this stitched-together world: nostalgia. When was the last time he had ever had a sip of this milk anyway? It had to have been when he was still a kid. He also realized that it was nice to have something he was actually familiar with for a change. For a long-forgotten amount of time he had only been eating and drinking things that were completely alien to him. So the chance to drink something familiar, even something simple like this, was a surprisingly welcome one.

”Well, that’s enough living in the past.” Ganondorf said to himself. He stood from the stool and paid his tab and silently walked out of the bar and back out into the Metro. As nice as that moment of nostalgia was, at the end of the day it was but a fleeting moment. And Ganondorf himself had business to attend to. So he set out to begin his search for pons. Unfortunately it was now time to go back to his main goal of hunting down and destroying Galeem.

Sectonia didn't have the time she thought she would in the City of Tears. Everyone was raring to go to another place to relax and she had no time to even fly to the bathhouse, let alone get some time there. Granted the Gerudo's springs were better, so perhaps everyone was waiting for the better place to get all cleaned up. Well, if that was the case, she wouldn't complain about their agreeing taste, but for now they couldn't well travel there dripping wet. While the stag ride was a bit too cramped and fast for a way to dry everyone, the Metro cat in Dirtmouth provided a longer ride.

Not wanting herself, or her minions and allies to be soaking wet going into the metro, Sectonia summoned a red antler and used it as an express heat dryer to dry everyone off before they got to the metro. Everyone was free to use the red antler as they saw fit, although they'd have to deal with a quick styling to fix their hair if they wanted, they didn't have infinite time...

At least the metro hadn't changed much. Still a bit dirty overall, but a welcome sight from the underground's disgusting asthetic. Although thinking about that, she had taken the source of the underground's infection into herself for power, even if the source itself was quite decent looking. She'd have to see if there were any side effects of her possibly spreading the infection or not, but so far it seems nothing had happened and the effects were reversing. Her standards of beauty perhaps? Well, those were idle thoughts as having been through the Metro once before, Sectonia summoned some of her ice antlers to run around and collect Poms. the Antlers were much bigger than before, so this should make collecting them easier.

While Sectonia finished up dispatching her antlers, she noticed something odd. Ms. Fortune, enlivened by the myriad charms of this feline-friendly locale and filled with energy, had been prepping herself for some parkour a minute ago, but now the feral stood still. With her black coat acceptably dry thanks to the red antler's ambient heat, she'd donned it once more, then stared off into the distance, her arms crossed. A change of plans, maybe? Once her minions lumberd off to scrabble together her train fare, Sectonia wound up wondering what to do with herself in the mean time, and in those doldrums Nadia made her move.

Ms Fortune approached, her hands in her pockets. Though she could typically be counted upon to face the world with a cordial smile and peppy energy, something about her expression seemed more sly than usual. "Heya, Toni," she greeted the big queen. Even her voice possessed a playful tinge of mischief. "Isn't this place just the cat's pajamas? I mean, I know it might not be your idea of 'beautiful'. But I think there's beauty everywhere, if you know where to look." She pointed down the Metro's main thoroughfare, past the colorful neon lights to a large boutique of expensive brown wood bathed in tasteful white. "Take that place 'fur' instance. Le Félin. It's a jeweler, purr-etty big-time by the look of it. Why not check it out?" She gestured at the pink crystals that adorned Sectonia's outfit. "Never too much of a good thing, right? Might as well roll the die...mond. Nyehehehe!"

Sectonia didn't laugh nor flinch at Nadia's little chitter chatter, even though the mention of a jewellery store was interesting. Sectonia replied "... You really stretched yourself for that last pun." Sectonia said cooly. "But yes, that store could have something interesting. I suppose I'll take a look." With that, Sectonia made her way to the jewelery store, with Nadia discreetly in tow, the catgirl's plan in motion.

Sectonia was unaware of this though, and took the bait by heading into the jewellery store. Unknown to her this store was run by one of the big heads of the Metro, The Empress. Not knowing or really caring about that, Sectonia approached the counter. Inside the case were various bits of jewelry, most of it was pretty but non magicial, but there were a couple magical ones such as a sapphire amulet that increased magic power a bit, a ring with an adorned ruby that increased regeneration a bit, and a dubious diamond necklace that says that it'll save its wearer from death once.

"Hm... a new customer... Welcome. Anything catch your eye?" The Empress said cooly, only keeping a slight eye on Sectonia. Sectonia browsed the jewellery, from your basic gold rings to your more extravagant gemstudded bands. While she liked jewellery for its looks, the magic ones were what caught her eye. At least until she saw the price at a whopping 4000 poms for a single one, with an exchange rate for gold at near 2 to 1! That made the queen balk a little bit as she knew the magic in these things wasn't THAT strong compared to the price of things she had seen in other places with much stronger items.

But this was a jewellery store, so Sectonia had an idea. A trade of sorts. "I'd be interested in this..." Sectonia said, pointing at the sapphire amulet of magic. "And I see you have a lack of gemstone jewellery compared to all of your gold stuff, so how about a trade?" The Empress wasn't impressed with Sectonia's suggestion, but decided to humor the armored bug. If anything it was a slow day and this was some mild entertainment.

Sectonia moved out of the establishment to conjure her giant crystal platform, a deep ruby red. The platform was quite large, pre cut, and what Sectonia was going to offer for trade. She had tried this once before with no luck, and this time would be no different. While not expecting this bug to make a huge crystal like that, the Empress wasn't one to be upstaged, nor give in to anyone she had power over as was this case. "And how am I supposed to make use of that? Its far too large, and was that made by magic? its barely worth more than glass."

This lead to a bit of an argument between the two prideful ladies, Sectonia pointing out that beauty was beauty and this was brilliant while the Empress was having fun getting what would be a ground shattering deal over this large bauble. Still though, an argument was an argument, and the pride of both of these ladies wouldn't let them actually come to an agreement and after some heated words and long arguments, Sectonia shattered her gem platform and left in a huff leaving the area covered in a ruby dust.