Well, Roland saw that the engineers could take care of themselves, and watching the relative comedy unfold in front of him with the seemingly chipper Poppi suddenly becoming distant as the witch introduced herself in a very distant manner and Tora being a bit of a jokester himself. Maybe they could make this, emotionally distant and possibly tortured person open up a bit with their antics? Either way, they semed to have everything under control so Roland decided to make his way out of the room and head to the mess hall to grab a snack.

On the eve of a major operation, just about all non-essential personnel aboard the Avenger had already retired for the evening, eager to make the most of a good night's sleep. Some Lost Numbers remained, such as the flight crew and a handful of lookouts watching the sky for any sign of danger. Technicians inspected, logicians studied, physicians examined, and magicians practiced their witching-hour arts, but for the most part, the corridors and stairwells of the airship were quiet and still. Quiet except for metallic creaks and subtle reverb of the engines. Still except for the muted sway of course correction and atmospheric turbulence. Roland didn't leave the lower decks with any company to keep, but as he made his way up several stories, Roland gradually got the feeling that he wasn't alone.

Then, while reflexively looking over his shoulder, he saw it: a flash of crimson amidst the darkness. Had he not been in Meridi-at-han he might have been spooked, or convinced that he was seeing things, but he knew that color. He'd seen it the exact moment his friend heart scrubbed away the sundown luster of Galeem. At some point, the discreet ringleader of the Grimm Troupe had inhabited the shadows around him. Once Grimm felt comfortable enough to make himself known, the tall bug drew closer to the Fixer, and by the time Roland entered the empty mess hall his new acquaintance was only a second or two behind him.

"So, tall, dark and creepy. Can I help you?" Roland said, pointing to how Grimm had been stalking him for awhile until they had both managed to make it to the mess hall. Maybe the bug man didn't know where the mess hall was and was waiting for someone to show him the way? If it wasn't for Roland being familiar with stealthy tactics Grimm might've caused a commotion by scaring someone.

Once Roland acknowledged his presence, Grimm stopped following him. He stood by, more or less illuminated in his entirety by the cafeteria's ambient lights, and took in the area. Right now most of the counters were bare, spick and span thanks to Bracket's after-dinner cleanup, but a handful of drink machines remained online, and there was always the shelves offering packaged, non-perishable snacks. Judging by the droplets of spilled coffee next to one of the machines, and a couple crumbs where the last of the day's stale leftover muffins had rested, someone had been here recently.

"Well met, my friend. I wish to express my gratitude," Grimm rasped suddenly. "For freeing me from that cruel trance of captivity. I am beholden to one master already, and two figures cannot cast the same shadow. Now lucid, my purpose is clear. To cast a pall of nightmare across this sprawling dreamscape, and see its thralls awakened." He extended a hand from beneath his cloak, curled its black claws, and stared at them. "I am eager to see them illuminated. I'm sure I have many a splendid dance in store. Yet...there is much I do not know. My Troupe remains in oblivious delusion, but I am scarcely better off. No more a leader...merely a bit player." His hand disappeared, and he looked toward Roland. "In such a role, how best can I serve?"

"Oh hes one of these types. I just hope he doesn't expect me to talk like a theatre kid." Roland thought to himself as he gave Grimm a calculated look. "Uhh.... ok? Well your not going to be the first guy on the team going on and on about the 'power of darkness'. So hopefully that isn't going to cause any problems." Roland said. The polite ones were the ones you had to keep your eye on more than even the crazy ones, as they were just better at hiding how crazy they were. Well, time would tell, Grimm did risk himself for Roland unprompted so...

"Well from what I understand we're trying to beat up the light in the sky or something. We gotta fight people to fix that. Although no one knows what'll happen when that thing is beaten." Roland started."There are a lot of things we got to beat up and take the spirits of to get stronger to be able to fight stronger things.... I do appreciate something easy and straghtforward at least."

Pulling out the book of George, Roland said. "Remember that giant ape we fought? Well this is him now." then explained the things you can do with a spirit, although explained that for him he made books and not spirits due to his time at the library. Finding nothing he wanted from George's powers or anything, Roland turned to the pages that explained what he'd get if he burned the book. And while the chicken, fruit, and bomb were pretty self explaintory; two one time use heals and a one use bomb, the other others were a bit weirder. A one use massive fire breath, a multi use but delayed healing item, and the last one....

Wait... Scum Soda. Didn't Goldweis find some of that earlier? Reading its little blurb, suddenly events at Meridi made sense. "Wait... this thing turns people into monsters? IS that how those things appeared suddenly? What the hell? What kind of sick experiment is that?" Roland flipped to the page with the toaster and decided on that before burning the book, said toaster manifesting from the ashes. Roland picked it up, looked it over, and plugged it in on a table in the mess hall for everyone to use.

"Although I wouldn't go around just bopping everyone on the head and taking their spirits. A lot of them aren't worth it, and something bad probably happens if you go about doing it too much. I heard there was a guy that did that and he disappeared under mysterious circumstances." Roland said. He then thought a bit and clarified. "The common rule seems to be. If they're outwardly hostile at the start they're free game. Things with low intelligence, also kinda free game. Anything else is a case by case basis."

Darkness? Grimm was a creature of few words, and that hadn't been one he uttered. Its strength and allure were not foreign concepts to him, certainly, but darkness simply wasn't his lot. Dream and nightmare were two sides of the same coin, in that they both stood in contrast to oblivion, the pitch-black void at beginning and end. Few would choose a nightmare over a dream, but over nothingness? Even hell was preferable to nihility. Regardless, Grimm did not waste time on a rebuke. If not for darkness, after all, there would be no need for flame. Grimm could not anticipate what might constitute a 'problem' for Roland, but in regards to his mission, the fixer's hopes had very little say in the matter.

The Troupe Master listened as Roland reiterated the thrust of what Goldlewis exposited before, though dumbed down to an extent that Grimm wondered if his new acquaintance really knew all that much more than he did. Still, if it all boiled down to killing things, there wasn't all that much to grasp to begin with. He paid more attention when Roland introduced the topic of spirits. In his hand he held George's essence, converted into a tome of pure potential that Roland could tap as he pleased. One of the possibilities presented a conundrum, however, and having not been there in the aftermath of the battle, Grimm couldn't comment on it even if he wanted to. Still, if such wanton destructive power could erupt from such a small and harmless package, he could tell that everyone -both up here and down there- ought to be wary. If a mere beverage could transfigure someone thusly, calamity could truly come from anywhere.

"...I see," Grimm whispered. Power could be gained in many ways, and this one promised to be a great deal quicker than his own methods. The question was always what one must sacrifice along the way. "Where to now?"

"I think we'll be heading over to pick up some more of our allies in... some place called Mafia town? I hope its not run by the syndicates that I've had to deal with, some of those poor kids would not last long against such monsters." Roland said, completely ignoring that Jr. and Rika were armed to the teeth as if that didn't matter at all to him when it came to the horrors he was referring to. "Then off to pick up a few more allies and then I think the plan is to take out a guardian. " Roland then remembered that he hadn't told Grimm about those.

"Oh right. I should probably tell you what to look out for. To beat that big ball of light, we need to take out these guaridans of its apparently. There are also two other factions with their own goals. The Consuls, which have letters for names which want to stop us so they can live in this world with all their heidonistic desires filled. They somehow can take over anyone who is 'galeemed', besides the guardians. Then there are these.. uh... one of our co workers calls them 'nobodies' that exist in that town to the north of Meridi that everyone couldn't enter. We don't know anything about them, but if they are hiding behind such a barrier it can't be anything good."

While Goldlewis had mentioned Galeem's guardians during his mission brief on the way through Meridi-at-han, but these Consuls were new to Grimm. If they really could puppet the deluded, their involvement would logically pose a huge, constant threat on any activities within populated areas, yet Roland mentioned it so offhandedly. No wonder the Lost Numbers prefered to travel above the clouds, hidden well beyond the reach of listening ears and prying eyes. He and the others would no doubt need to be on guard against Consuls and Nobodies alike going forward. "Very well," Grimm confirmed. If the mission Sandalphon alluded to involved a Guardian, one of the foundational support pillars that propped up this very world, things would be getting interesting much sooner than the Troupe Master had anticipated. "Our scarlet eyes will be watching."

"Oh, and try to be sociable. We're all in the same boat yeah? Best to not be distant on top of that." Roland said as a finisher to his 'advice'. This world was all new, so there was still a lot he needed to know before he could give a better explination like he could as a fixer back in his world.

---

With it being a bit late, Blazermate wasn't sure who'd be up besides those that had just been picked up. And they were all probably really tired. So blazermate decided she'd just go grab a quick tune up, even if she had to do it herself, before heading to her room and taking a bit of a nap to pass the time. Humming to herself, she made her way down to the engineering deck to make sure she was in good working order.

When Blazermate entered the workshop, however, she found no sign of her friends. No sparks flew, no cranks clicked, and no machines functioned. At first glance, the place appeared deserted, but the medabot didn't need to rely on her optics alone. When she ran a quick scan of the area, she did turn up one life signal tucked away in one corner, but upon arriving there Blazermate was in for something of a surprise. An engineer was sitting there, comfortably tucked into a beanbag chair, and though its egg-shaped body, stubby limbs, and feathery arm-wings were all characteristic of a Nopon, this clearly wasn't Tora. Instead of stripy brown fur, this Nopon appeared be clad in salmon pink, with a head of fluffy dark brown hair dyed black. She wore a black vest that matched her glasses, and the dark eyes behind contained dull sparkles as she sat there, absorbed in a book. When Blazermate approached, though, the Nopon looked up with an irritated expression. "Meh? What gives?" Her voice was surprisingly low, bored-sounding, and apathetic. "Lulubi workshop closed for day. No more fixings or tinkerings for anypon until morrow. Got it?"

"Uh... do we have time tomorrow to go about doing that? Aren't we heading back to skyworld and doing something there? Kinda wanna make sure I'm ready for a fight if we gotta deal with one." Blazermate said. She hadn't really been fighting all that much while she was in Mafia town, nor took all that much damage. If anything she was just here to clean herself up and make sure she was in optimal condition, instead of needing repairs overall. "I can clean and polish myself if your too tired. Just uh, which drawer had the cleaning cloth and wax?"

The Nopon peered at Blazermate over her glasses with the critical stare of a librarian. "You look fine to Lulubi, meh. And Lulubi not tired, by the way. Am night owl, happiest once annoying people all go to bed." Hoping that Blazermate got the point, she reached her wing out for a glass of hot cocoa on the nearby workbench to bring it close for a sip. "'Friend' not use Lulubi's wax. Everything in short supply up here. Obviously. Why need wax if going to fight anyway, meh? Shinies only make more noticeable to enemies." From her tone it could be inferred that the curt engineer wasn't really interested in an answer--just criticizing her uninvited guest. "Lulubi rags mostly covered in grit and grease, but if 'friend' find one, be Lulubi guest."

"Fair enough. I'll uh, get to it then." Blazermate said, scratching her chin admitting lulubi had a good point. While being observed by the Nopon, Blazermate went around looking for a clean rag. There had to be a clean one around here somewhere... As she looked, she decided to strke up some casual conversation. "So, do you know the other Nopon, Tora that works here during the day?" Blazermate said as she found a bunch of rags and started to dig through them to find a decent one to use.

The question prompted an exasperated sigh. "Meh, meh. Sure have. He find excuses at all hours of day to come say hello, always giving compliments or bringing treats. Lulubi never meet more awkward nopon in life. It like he never meet girl before." She took a big sip of her hot cocoa. "Good thing he have that Poppi to hold him back, meh. It seem like she have head on straight, which is miracle given who made her. Even let slip that Tora only interested in human girls before now, if 'friend' believe it." When it came to complaining, evidently, Lulubi was much more forthcoming, and not averse to gossip. "So yeah, he kind of freakypon. Guess it take someone like that to make something like Poppi, though, so Lulubi suppose Tora must be pretty smart. Still, smarts do no good if nobody like you, meh. Avenger full of weirdos like that nowadays." Completely lacking in self-awareness, the nopon chugged the rest of her cocoa, then wiped her lips with the back of her wing and resumed reading.

"Your not wrong there! I was adventuring with him before this whole avenger spot, and you pretty much have the gist of it. I think hes kinda not sure how to handle being around girls. Well, flesh and blood ones anyway. He doesn't seem to have much interest in robotic ones outside of Poppi." Blazermate said, finding a good rag, cleaning it up in the nearby sink, grabbing a couple tools, and started to pop off her parts and cleaning up any of her internal components that needed it. Since she was doing it herself, she could only do one part at a time and when it got time to do her face, she had to find a mirror in order to clean that up.

Really she didn't have too much wear and tear to clean up, mostly just a bit of dirt on her healing arm since it changed to different modes constantly, but best to make sure she was in good condition. She kind of was the teams biggest healer, and people relied on her to feel safe.

Once she felt she was cleaned up, she put everything back where it was. "Enjoy your book, guess we'll see each other later then." Blazermate said, giving a wave as she left to head for her room. Lulubi just gave a hmph, happy to be alone once more.

Roxas’ own escape from the train wasn’t nearly as much of a close call as some of the others. The quick and nimble Nobody was among the first to make it out into the air in fact. Of course, once he was out there, he was in a bit of trouble due to his lack of wings. But an angel managed to snag him courtesy of Edward’s orders and safely get him down to the ground near the crater of the crash site. But no one got any chance to celebrate, since Absalom made it clear that he wasn’t done just yet.

”Why is there always a second phase?” Roxas wondered to himself as everyone prepared to kick back into gear. But they all, including Roxas, paused when the object came crashing down from the sky above. And like any of the Seekers, Roxas managed to recognize it as a hellpod from the Avenger. And emerging from it was the demon hunter himself - Dante. In a way it was fitting that a demonic fallen angel like Absalom would eventually get targeted by the demon hunter.

And then everyone kicked into gear for real. Instead of immediately jumping onto the Avatar of Chaos like most everyone else did, Roxas spent the first moments providing some Tailwind Buffs to the Featherstaffs so they could reach the injured more quickly. While he was doing that, Roxas caught sight of the nasty attack that hit Edelgard. His instinct was to rush in and heal her but before he could do anything like that, Pit had managed to grab her and carry her away from the fight a bit. But he didn’t look like he had time to nurse her from there.

”It’s up to me, then.” Roxas told himself as he sprung into flow motion action. He ran, leaped and parkoured his way across an ever-increasingly chaotic fight scene to get to where Edelgard had been dropped. He was about to cast Curaga but had a different idea instead. Rather than cast his healing spell, Roxas produced a Friend Heart and quickly threw it at the Flame Emperor. It would de-story her from Galeem’s influence, but it would also give her a much needed full heal.

”You’re not dying on my watch, Ms. Edelgard.” Roxas assured her, but he unfortunately had little in the way of time or opportunity to explain any of the confusing things she was probably now remembering. It would have to wait until after they finished off Absalom and won this war once and for all. Speaking of which…

Roxas sprinted off to finally join the melee against Absalom. By now Midna, Edward, and Pit too had all gotten their licks in. Well now it was his turn. Roxas maneuvered himself until he was standing next to Dante and then, ”Light!” He called out. By now some of the Seekers had come to recognize this as the telltale sign of an incoming Limit attack. And this was no exception. Empowered by Roxas’ Light, Dante threw his weapons straight up into the air where they transformed back into the Cerberus triplets who fused together into their monstrous Queen Cerberus form before crashing back down onto the ground.

“Yeah! Let’s ride!” Dante called with a grin as he and Roxas both hopped up onto Queen’s Cerberus’ back. After that it was a cacophony of fire, ice and lighting as each of the three heads took turns blasting Absalom with each respective element while Roxas did the same from his Keyblades. When that was finished, the Limit entered the final stage of its attack. Queen Cerberus hurled Dante and Roxas both forward at Absalom, Roxas managing to pass one of his Keyblades over to the demon hunter so they could both go crashing into the Avatar of Chaos with a powerful double Stinger finishing blow.

“Alright…” Dante began as he casually tossed the Keyblade back over to Roxas’ hand only for Roxas to finish the taunt for him while Queen Cerberus transformed back into weapons. ”...Who’s next in line?”

Thankfully, many hands made light work when it came to cleaning up Bancho Sushi. With the added boon of the Mafia coming and actually paying up on their 'protection money' to their highest provider (and throwing a bit of egg on Geralt's face in the process for stealing from their enforcers any chance he got), things in Mafia Town were...still pretty horrible. Bancho, Dave, and the others would still have to actually rebuild the restaurant, but that wasn't his problem. Technically, it wasn't even Nadia's, and she worked there!

Sandalphon's arrival nearly perfectly matched those of the others, with their angelic dispatcher providing even the newcomer a fulton. Geralt didn't recognize the man, but Falcon's demeanor belied some kind of pre-existing relationship. Given that he had apparently been wrapped up with Bowser, Link, Ganondorf and some others in Galeem's 'original' attack, those old bonds would be helpful.

Rolling his eyes at Juri and Nadia's nonsense, Geralt waited for the others to activate their fultons before sighing and looking at Sandalphon. "I hate this."

---

Waking up with the room spinning, Geralt sighed and laid there for a minute or two before forcing himself up, once his stomach had settled. At least Nadia was still out, though the way her tail was flicking gave him the impression that she wouldn't be for much longer. Geralt decided to take the others' lead and leave the feral to her fate, making his path towards the mess hall to grab whatever remained of the day's food.

There wasn't much, only pre-packaged food that was likely to be only somewhat satisfying, but Geralt didn't mind much, grabbing a blueberry muffin and making his way back to his shared room with Captain Falcon while eating it. He removed most of his armor, sitting in the bed, and closed his eyes. It wasn't quite meditation, but a half-state between. He didn't feel like properly meditating at this moment, but he wasn't yet restful enough to sleep, either. Consul I was going to alert the others, because of course they were.

Unlike the others, being able to both fly and teleport made escaping the would be destruction of the train pretty easy. Dealing with the aftermath of the raging Absalom however, would still be a problem. Everyone was pretty quick to leave the train as it careened into a large pit and turned into scrap but the leader of the corruption emerged from the wreckage worse for wear but still ready to fight and flinging its corruption everywhere.

Still, he looked to be on his last legs, but that made the cornered animal more dangerous as it attacked Edelgard and brought the fire user low. Well, at least until Roxas got the save with a friend heart before preforming a flashy move using Roxas's magic, Dante's firepower, and Cerberus transformed. All while Midna and Pit got their attacks in.

Dante looking to go another round, and Uriel looking to get involved in the scrap as well, Sectonia had an idea. Causing another rain of holy swords on Absalom, she gave Dante and Uriel haste allowing the two fast melee combatants to gain even more speed and attack Absalom in a clash of steel, holy sparks, explosions, and in Uriel's case, just looked like an explosive laser drill attacking and destroying Absalom's side while Dante was attacking from the other side with his own weapons, both fighters keeping Absalom from escaping from the rain of holy swords like he did before and grabbing his ire. He'd find a hasted Dante would be difficult to attack as Dante had more than enough time to put up a counter and deal more damage and avoid Absalom's retaliatory swing.

Sectonia meanwhile, having landed enough light attacks and seeing Absalom was pinned glowed like a bright star as she focused and fired a large beam of pure light from the sky, impacting Absalom and causing the creature to try to run. But the hasted Uriel and Dante kept him in place as he took the Ethereal Gleam, and as the massive beam of light finally expired, Absalom was not looking great at all. Still, he was standing, and was still ready for more. With his counter used up, Dante was thrown away at last, with Uriel hopping away to not be slammed by Absalom's axe.

Seeing her foe was weak however and knowing that she had an ability for that, Sectonia closed the distance with a few blinks and got in range to use her Reaper's Scythe, the death and pain of Absalom coalescing phantom chains around him as the scythe of the reaper came to swing as his head. Uriel didn't see any of this however, as she instead went in for another round seeing an opening from Absalom's movement being temporarily halted by the phantom chains, and moved to make her strike from the same angle and timing as the scythe falling so all Absalom would see before it was destroyed was a furious angel striking him with a holy exploding scythe of death, the scythe overlaying on top of Uriel in a fashion and striking Absalom at the same time and felling the creature in an explosion of holy death.

---

Though the hairy little man may have answered her question, what he told the Witch only left her twice as baffled as before. ‘Airship’ she could more or less decipher: it was probably just a ship that sailed across the skies instead of the seas. A useful word, apt to describe the craft the Seekers rode around in. As for the rest of his vocabulary, however… ‘Complete nonsense’ didn’t even begin to describe it.

Elerium-based? Nanotech? Space-farin? GEATHJERK?? The bewildered sorceress could only stare uncomprehending, victim once more to the unpleasant feeling of being far out of her depth. She’d meant to scare the engineer into spilling his guts, but rather than quail in fear he’d freely given her information she could scarcely even grasp. Was he so naïve as to somehow think her harmless? She nearly bristled at that, but immediately found herself stopped by a more important question—if this pint-sized tinkerer was telling the truth, then he was perhaps the most knowledgeable mortal the Witch had even encountered.

She paused, and took a deep breath. “I… See.” Clearly it wouldn’t do to rush recklessly in like she had been. These people were more unique than she could possibly have expected; perhaps even she couldn’t fathom the consequences of getting on their bad side. She resolved to try being a little more polite for the moment, to take advantage of their blind trust. It wasn’t often that people trusted the Witch, and less often still that she repaid that trust in kind; she really ought to enjoy this rare experience while it lasted.

“Yes, friend.” The word tasted strange in her mouth, but she nodded along and tried to put on her least ghoulish smile. “I don’t think ‘Martha’ quite suits me, though. Perhaps ‘Maratha’ will do.” The name had more of a Wraeclastian ring to it, and sounded a great deal more menacing than the furball’s suggestion. Already her plan of sucking up was bearing fruit: if science was the foundation upon which this airship was build, then a lot of things suddenly made a great deal more sense.

The Witch knew of science. The study of the natural world, which some scholars applied for practical purposes. Even in her own world it had been vital in its way, but its power and allure had always paled compared to the world-shaking might of thaumaturgy. Why waste time studying the fragile laws of physics, when a single swipe of a witch’s wand could rend those laws asunder?

Maybe, she now understood, this was why. Maybe in a world without gods and nightmares run rampant, a world where the natural order still held sway, that methodical practice of science could advance to heights she’d never have imagined. Rather than swat aside gravity with powerful magic, perhaps gravity could be tamed and understood—and through such understanding, a mountain of iron made to soar through the skies.

A little humbled, but all the more fascinated by the new horizons opening before her eyes, the Witch signaled her assent. “A gift, for me? You really don’t have to. But yes, the sum total of human knowledge is just what I need right now; be a good friend and hand it over.” In magic as well as science, she was starting at the bottom of the ladder, but with enough will and cunning she’d soon lord it over these fools in every possible field.

After a brief bout of bickering (she couldn’t even begin to understand what all the fuss was about), the device was in her hands. The Witch bit her tongue and accepted it as gracefully as she could manage—then immediately scurried off to a dark corner of the engine room, where she might examine her prize unobserved. It wouldn’t do to have them know what she was learning; better that she mask her progress and catch them by surprise.

It took her only a minute or so to work out how to manipulate the glowing panel, and from there she quickly delved deep into the channels of the Inter-knot, devouring all the knowledge she could find. Just how far had science, come, in this World of Light where everything fit together? A few searches soon yielded remarkable results: skyscrapers, aircraft, telephones, motor vehicles. Harnessed lightning carried through mile upon mile of copper thread, vibrating membranes that could mimic the sound of someone’s voice, glass eyes that watched and recorded every moment they saw. She looked up briefly to glance around the room she was in, aware and observant now for any spying cameras.

The device in her hands was more than just a library, though. It was a communicator, a messenger that sent and received words across incredible distances almost faster than the Witch could blink. With mounting glee, she tried reaching out to a few of her old acquaintances, who also seemed to have found their way into this invisible network of information. Needless to say, many of them were quite excited to hear from her.

For a brief moment following Mewtwo’s declaration, everyone was quiet. The grim light of the scarred moon shone down on the pumpkin-crowning tower of Edinburgh MagicaPolis, on the bone-white snow that danced at its feet, and on the wrought-iron girders through which the fierce winter winds howled in the dead of night. Human no longer, L bared her teeth in a permanent leer, and her crimson eyes shone in the darkness. “Such attitude,” the Moebius chided him. “You know, I much prefer Pokemon who can’t speak. But we could trade barbs until we’re blue in the face...” She lifted up her hands, curling enormous claws into fists. “So let’s just skip to the part where you’re history.”

<Fine by me!> Mewtwo’s power surged as he threw his hand out, using Psychic. A wave of concentric purple ripples pulse down toward L, who raised up her fists in response. Space warped in front of her, and from the ether manifested a wall of blue-lined blocks from the Ultra Beast Stakataka. Mewtwo’s Psychic crashed against them, disturbing but not shattering their structure, and in response the wall exploded back toward the team in a gigantic shotgun blast of stone bricks. By that time, though, the others were on the move . As a stream of sound energy propelled Band forward, he scooped up Wonder Red in a big mechanical mitt and flung him like a baseball. He hurtled through the air in a somersault, threading the needle between the stones, then pulled back his fist for a flying punch.

“Uniiiite HAND!”

In an instant he pulled the other three to him, encasing them in a giant, fist-shaped shell of red energy. The massive punch bore down on L like a wrecking ball, forcing her to leap backward or be crushed against the brim of the magic city’s biggest witch hat. Having flung herself out over open space, it looked for a moment like she’d be doomed to fall, but instead she summoned a spectral titan of metal bamboo shoots and steel fiber, Celesteela. After grabbing its spindly midsection like a pole, L swung around and hurled herself back toward her foes, dismissing Celesteela in favor of a slender white insectoid that she flung at Wonder Red with terrifying speed. It struck him with a lightning-fast backhand slap and sent him flying back toward the tower, but not before Red managed to dispel his Unite Morph. When L landed, the other three Seekers dropped down nearby, ready to brawl.

Band kicked things off with Giant Step, deploying a massive drum pedal that struck the earth with great force. It failed to knock L down, but it unsteadied her just long enough that she couldn’t immediately flee. That gave the other two a chance to act, and the first to do so was Mewtwo.

While he may not have been familiar with the strange Pokemon that L summoned from those wormholes, Mewtwo could at least hazard a guess to what type some of them were based on appearances. And the slender white insectoid seemed to be a Bug type of some kind. And this gave Mewtwo his idea. He held up a hand to concentrate his psychic powers, and managed to conjure up a series of fossilized stones that he proceeded to shoot forward as projectile attacks aimed at L. If the ultra beast was indeed of the bug type, then this Ancient Power attack would be super effective against it, forcing L to either allow her beast to take massive damage or risk taking the brunt of the attack herself. Instead, L summoned the beefy arms of Buzzwole and unleashed a barrage of punches, its fighting-type fists shattering the stones into shards that blasted off at odd angles like buckshot.

With Big Band and Mewtwo on the move, the Ace Cadet stepped up himself. He charged forward with one hand wrapped tight around the sheath of his long sword, the other hovering over the blade's handle with fingers splayed, poised to draw it at any moment.

It was easy to disregard L's casual declaration that she'd killed Linkle, Albedo, and Lucia when he simply didn't believe it was true. She might have thought otherwise, but if she'd been trying to unnerve her ambushers with that comment it didn't work. The Cadet's focus was unwavering, dedicated to the task at hand. He took to flanking L and her beast, keeping him out of the path of Mewtwo's Ancient Power while simultaneously putting him in the best position to take advantage of the Moebius' next move once she recovered from Band's step. As he closed in on L, the Cadet took hold of his weapon and drew it in a ferocious cross slash aimed at her core.

L’s primary focus had been on dealing with Ancient Power, but since she wasn’t controlling Buzzwole directly, she managed to react in time when Ace surged in for a sideswipe. She raised her arm and caught the hunter’s longsword in the bladed attachment on her forearm, though the unexpected force behind Ace’s steel allowed him to open her up with the follow-through. The ensuing moment of vulnerability seemed to panic L -or perhaps enrage her- as she immediately banished Buzzwole in order to call upon the stinging tentacles of Nihilego, with which she lashed out at Ace like a cat-o-nine-tails. On contact the nematocysts within the ultra beast’s milk-pale flesh would trigger to inject countless minuscule venomous harpoons, pumping poison into skin or lodging into armor with stubborn adhesiveness.

As soon as he felt the prickling burn the first strike left him with, the monster hunter knew what was going on. How many times had he been poisoned over the course of his hunting career? Dozens, maybe hundreds of times? He hadn't developed a resistance to it or anything like that, but he knew his own limits. He could fight through this. With only his sword and rigging, there was no way he was going to stop all of the beast's arms anyway - but more than that, from experience he knew the gradual build up of damage would trigger one of his current armor skills: Resentment. He felt a small power boost come over him and he pressed his own attack, going toe to toe with the Moebius with the blade of his sword flashing and slicing against her armor before the poison got too bad. At the same time the blades and miniguns on his rigging fought off some of Nihilego's tentacles as they continued to whip at him ceaselessly. L meant to impair him, drag him down, and then finish him with a lethal stab from her arm-blade, but that was proving easier said than done, especially with the other two Seekers present.

Big Band was eager to make the most of this three-on-one, and in the wake of Mewtwo’s Ancient Power he threw his full weight into the task. “Gimme a hit!” Propelled by blasts of sound from his heels, the cyborg bulled forward like a runaway freight train, a giant fist of not-so-delicate instruments extended in a jaw-dropping Brass Knuckle. L, struggling against Ace’s strength, thrust her other hand at Band to summon Xurkitree, which swung its electrified, pluglike tail. Band armored through the blow to land a hefty punch on her torso. “AAHHAAY!” Meanwhile, Mewtwo had begun focusing his psychic powers into his next move, but the move itself wasn’t immediately apparent yet.

“Ngh!” Incensed, L threw Xurkitree forward in a wild lariat that struck and zapped Band multiple times in quick succession. She could see her foes were closing in, though, and the consul needed to make some space. She heaved Ace while dismissing Nihilego’s tentacles to throw him down, then brought forth one of Celesteela’s massive thrusters. It lifted into the air with the sound of a jet engine, giving both men just a second to react. Band backdashed in time to avoid the rocket as it slammed down. Its burners lit up, and as he jumped the detective deployed a cymbal like a shield. A huge fire blast went off in a wide area, and though Band defended himself the force of the flames flung him a few dozen feet back.

When the Cadet hit the ground he rolled to the side and was back on his feet within a moment, sword still drawn. Though he wanted to counter attack, instinct told him to move. He raised his arm, firing the slinger strapped to it at an iron beam. The claw at the end of it grabbed on and the chain went taut before rapidly reeling Ace in, pulling him up and out of the immediate danger zone. The slinger respooled itself on his arm when he landed, while he swiftly fetched an antidote from his pack. Unsure if it would even work on alien toxins, he hoped for the best and was moving again before he was even finished drinking it. It was a welcome surprise, then, when the poisons circulating through his system quickly lost their potency and subsided.

It was at this time that the roof of the tower now became noticeably covered with a misty fog. The Consul would likely finally realize that the power Mewtwo had been focusing his energy into earlier was the ice type move, Mist. For the next 30 seconds or so, the Pokemon and his allies would be prevented from having their stats changed, rendering them immune to debuffs for the duration. But more importantly, the mist itself would provide a temporary reduction in visibility and allow for the Seekers to partially cloak their movements. For Mewtwo’s part, he cupped his hands behind him and began charging up what looked like a Shadow Ball, however the mist made it difficult to confirm this. Then Mewtwo suddenly vanished, using Teleport to instantly pit himself directly behind Consul L to try and unleash his charged up attack against her. It was only now that it would become apparent the move he was using was not the ghost type Shadow Ball, but instead the fighting type move Aura Sphere.

When a pale cloud of cool mist began to gather in the wake of L’s fireblast, she snarled in irritation. The Celesteela rocket faded away, and she quickly took stock of her foes’ positions. While Band and Ace had yet to fully recover, Mewtwo appeared to be gathering some sort of power to attack, half-hidden by the haze. His efforts earned him a scoff–did he really believe this would work? Leveraging her power, she surrounded herself with Stakataka, creating a tower of ghostly stone bricks around her. Then she brought forth and sent out a spectral Kartana, so small it was barely visible amidst the swirls of diamond dust. When its tiny blade flashed, however, the icy air itself parted before it, carving a warpath through the mist toward Mewtwo. As the shearing gale plowed toward him, however, the Pokemon vanished, reappearing behind L’s fortified location. When he unleashed his Aura Sphere, luck was on his side, for it blew through the Stakataka stones and into L herself.

The Consul gasped in shock and pain as her walls exploded around her. Then she turned on Mewtwo in a rage and made a crushing motion with her fist. Stakataka’s scattered constituents slammed together on her foe, like iron filings on a magnet. They pinned him in place, nigh-encased in stone, and as they squeezed L brought out Buzzwole’s giant arm to deal a mighty haymaker that demolished the bricks and left Mewtwo floored.

Not one second later, Band stepped in. He went for another tooth-loosening Brass Knuckle punch, but this time L didn’t challenge him. She stepped to the side, then resummoned Buzzwole to deliver an elbow straight to the detective’s gut. Big Band didn’t have a stomach in there for her sucker punch to upset, but its force still staggered him. L laid into the man with a quick barrage of punches, but with Ace on his way she couldn’t keep Band busy for long. She willed her Ultra Beast’s limb to wind up for a finishing blow, and that dropped combo gave her opponent the gap he needed. “Beat…” From beneath his trench coat Band extended two halves of a giant tambourine that caught L like a giant pincer, holding her aloft. “Extend!” When he jingled the zills, their clamor inflicted Sound Stun to keep L rattled long enough for Ace to join the party. Unbeknownst to Band, however, the Consul wasn’t as stunned as he’d been led to believe. In the middle of his Beat Extend, Blacephalon manifested just out of sight, its head already flashing and about to explode.

"I'm cutting in here!" the hunter said as soon as he was back within range of their target and giving the detective a heads up. He went in swinging the long sword to make the most of the opening Band provided, a series of powerful cross slashes back and forth that raked L's transformed armor. Each slash saw the entire blade drag across her form, the steel itself almost seeming to pulse with energy as Ace put his all behind it. He then transitioned into a finisher that started with an overhead strike, at least until he was interrupted.

The muscular insect had to have been a Fighting type of some kind. The attack he used was probably Brick Break or something similar. Thankfully Mewtwo’s own psychic typing allowed him to resist it, but even then, Buzzwole's raw strength still allowed the move to hit him pretty hard. Mewtwo staggered to recover from the blow just in time to see another summoned Pokemon begin to flash and glow - the telltale sign of an imminent explosion. But was it the actual Explosion move? It didn’t look quite the same, and unfortunately Mewtwo’s unfamiliarity with these ultra beasts made it impossible for him to know for sure. With no real time to think about it further, Mewtwo hastily made his guess and threw up Light Screen. A protective wall of invisible light would shield him and his allies from incoming Special Attacks for the next 30 seconds, reducing their damage by half.

And in this instance, Mewtwo could count his lucky stars because he had guessed correctly. The move Blacephalon used was indeed a Special Attack, and thus the potentially heavy damage it could have done was cut in half. It blew Band down and stopped his combo in its tracks, but he managed to spring to his feet with the help of some horns. The blast still hurt, but not as much as it could have. Between that and the heavy attack he took from Buzzwole, Mewtwo was starting to feel his injuries creep up on him. But he was not about to himself get nearly taken out like the last time he had fought a Consul. And noticing that his allies were getting pretty hurt too, Mewtwo focused and used his next move - the water type Life Dew. This would conjure a small shower of water droplets that seemed to fall from out of the cloudy mist onto himself and his allies. That refreshing water would give them healing equal to 25% of their total HP. It wasn’t a lot of healing, but no doubt some healing was better than none at all.

Explosive fire and healing water washed over the Seekers in quick succession. The Ace Cadet hadn't noticed the hidden Blacephalon until its Mind Blown had already gone off, though thanks to Mewtwo's intervention the explosion wasn't as debilitating as it could have been. The force of the blast staggered him, nearly throwing him off balance and definitely throwing off his blade rhythm, putting an end to his spirit combo. He clicked his tongue but adapted, getting right back into an offensive position.

With Mewtwo having swapped to running support he could keep on the attack, but at this point L had recovered too. The Cadet went in with a swift, simple thrust that his target knocked aside with a sweep of her arm-blade - then swung his sword around to reposition himself a few steps away from L. His new stance was low and wide, with his weapon held tightly in both hands while supported on his shoulder, foresight slash ready to counter whatever the Consul planned to throw their way.

With the intense battle well underway, L’s Moebius core was gyrating at full tilt, and her nerves were afire. In the heat of the moment she was primed for fast action–sometimes too fast. She unveiled Naganadel, a draconic purple wasp with a stinger like a massive syringe, which flapped its wings for a quick ascent, then dove down at Ace. Thanks to the hunter’s premeditation, though, he never tasted its steel. Instead his quick slash deflected the Ultra Beast’s stinger. At that moment a loud, high-pitched skirl resounded across the battlefield, projected by a set of bagpipes deployed from within Band’s mechanical body. The strident sound seemed to power him up, and he slid forward across the ground to rejoin the fight.

By then, though, L had begun her next move. As Naganadel faded, she summoned two Ultra Beasts in quick succession. First, the minuscule Kartana appeared, the gleam of its razor-thin blade the only forewarning before it slashed a ring of light around the Consul’s position. Rather than push through, Band stopped to block it, and was glad he did. The next moment, Celesteela manifested above L, and after a brief delay it tried to bring its huge boosters down on Ace and Big Band’s heads. The detective performed a backdash, then bulled forward with a Brass Knuckle aimed at the arm itself. His mighty punch knocked the limb into L, leaving her more surprised than hurt, then toppled over. Then a wicked idea entered her mind, and after a quick dash, she grabbed the booster in her arms. With fearsome strength she swung it like a hammer, seemingly aimed for Ace. If it hit, all the better, but her true intentions were to make Band think he had an opening.

The detective bought the ruse and pushed forward, not too proud to hit someone in the back. Right after L’s hammer fell, she willed the thruster to fire, launching her backward with explosive force. Her improvised weapon’s sharp, bamboo-like tip pierced Band’s torso before he could react, spearing her on its end as the two rocketed away from the others. L dismissed Celesteela, and the old cyborg fell to one knee, a gaping hole in his chest. He lifted his head just as L summoned Xurkitree, its arm sparking with electricity for a Thunder Punch straight to Band’s inner workings.

He breathed deep, and gritted his teeth. “Listen here!” Using the buff from Bagpipe Blues, he deployed two halves of a giant brass bell for a grab, armoring through the punch. Once the halves slammed together around Xurkitree, Band pivoted around while ringing the bell in order to deposit the Ultra Beast behind him. “Super…sonic!” With stunning speed he deployed a giant french horn, then rocketed into L. He blew straight through her attempted counterattack, pushing her back toward the others. “This band ain’t played out just yet!” His horn fell away as his arms burst out to hammer the Consul with a barrage of punches. “TUBATUBATUBATUBATUBATUBATUBATUBA!” His body rocked dangerously during the onslaught, sparks flying from his damaged parts, and the night sky swam before him. Even so, the detective found it within himself to let loose one last punch. “...TUBA!” As its strength knocked L back, Band overextended and fell flat on his damaged chest. From there, he did not rise–the rest was up to the others.

When L wielded the Celesteela limb, the Cadet saw it coming - as large as it was, how could he not? With a simple evasive maneuver he hopped backward out of its range, though the sudden ignition had seared him. After lowering the arm he'd raised to shield his head, he saw the Consul separating Band from the group, and the subsequent beat down the man laid on her. From that angle things looked alright, so the Cadet had no idea how injured the detective really was until he'd collapsed.

"Band!"

Band was down for the count. Red had yet to return from where he'd been flung to. The three who'd taken L on in her manor wouldn't make it up to the clock in time. Only two of them remained, and it was hard to see their progress. Honestly, scooping up their injured allies and retreating with their tails between their legs was a valid option. If they did, the blow to their pride would be a heavy one - and they most likely would not get a chance like this again. In her Moebius form L loomed over even the tallest among them, her armor merged to her body like chitinous plates with black tendons stretched between them while her face was pulled into a permanent sharp toothed sneer. All this combined with the cruelty she'd had on display openly since the Seekers had the misfortune of running into her, and the Consul really did seem more like a monster that needed to be put down than anything else. Ace tightened his grip on his sword.

As she was shoved by Band's last punch the Cadet met L with a two-handed thrust to her center mass, sinking the sword as deep as it could go. He got in closer and jumped, kicking off of the Consul and dragging the weapon up vertically as he sent himself high into the air. It was a risky move, he knew, but he didn't intend to let their chance go to waste.

Throughout all this, Mewtwo had been concentrating in order to use another support move. He put up Reflect, acting as a companion buff to Light Screen that would blunt the damage of incoming physical attacks by half. But he didn’t put up the screen in time to save Big Band from suffering a double whammy of attacks, first from an origami-like Pokemon that looked like it could be a Steel type, followed after that by a Thunder Punch from what clearly looked like an Electric type Pokemon.

Mewtwo’s eyes narrowed as he grew visibly frustrated at his lack of actions from the past several moments. Well now it was time to attack again. With anger on his face, Mewtwo concentrated psychic energy into his arms and used them to launch razor sharp blades of psychic energy once Ace was out of the way. It was Psycho Cut, two of them to be exact - one aimed at Xurkitree and the other at Consul L herself. Of course he was expecting her to have some kind of answer to block the attack. But he hoped the momentary distraction would keep her from noticing him charging up another attack immediately after the Psycho Cuts. If this worked then a few more moments from now she could be taken completely off guard by a powerful incoming Future Sight attack.

Just now regaining her feet from Band’s barrage, L couldn’t summon a new Ultra Beast in time and was forced to try and block the Psycho Cuts with her arm blades. She encountered only middling success, but when Mewtwo didn’t press the attack, the Moebius switched from defense to offense. She spread her arms, summoning the mouth-limbs of Guzzlord to either side of her as she prepared to strike.

At around this point, Ace heard the telepathic message from Mewtwo in his mind. <I’ve used a delayed attack! Distract the Consul long enough and it should catch her off guard!>

You got it, the hunter thought, whether Mewtwo could hear the internal reply or not. He was pretty good at drawing aggro. The hunter's rigging swiveled to fire down at L until he was at the apex of his jump, at which point he twisted in midair to reorient himself. He swung the longsword over his head, then fell, bringing the blade back down with a forceful helm breaker cleave that almost seemed to split the night air itself - liable to lop one of the ultra beast's limbs clean off.

His barrage blindsided the Consul, forcing her to raise Guzzlord’s arms in order to try and ward off the blistering output of Ace’s cannon. L wasn’t ready for her attacker to follow up the bombardment with a massive vertical chop that sheared into her defenses, slowed down by the phantom limbs’ bulk just enough that L could register the imminent strike. She dodged backward, a hand thrown up in panic, but not fast enough to avoid a glowing groove carved into part of her crest and left forearm. “Argh!” L snarled, clutching the fresh wound in her inorganic Moebius form as she bared sharp teeth at Ace. “Slice him!” At her call Pheromosa appeared, then shot forward in a high-speed Lunge to lower the hunter’s attack before vanishing. On its heels came Buzzwole, a bit slower but a lot stronger as it raised four fists for a mighty Hammer Arm.

In her instinctive vengefulness, L had forgotten all about Mewtwo - and the Cadet was hoping to keep it that way. Without knowing when the Pokémon's delayed attack was going to take effect all he could do was keep her occupied until it went off. Unfortunately the first beast L called on was too quick for the Cadet to counter or evade, and he staggered backward as the lunge punched into him. The hunter grit his teeth, slipping his sword back into its scabbard. It might have seemed like an odd movement, but he intended to draw it again almost immediately - iai was perfectly matched with a longsword, and it was well suited to responding to sudden actions. So it was only a moment later that Buzzwole bore down on the Cadet, and the hunter flicked his blade out for a Sakura Slash. He moved with the wide, evasive semi-circular cut, swinging to one side of the Ultra Beast and rupturing the swollen muscle-like sacs along one of its arms.

Put part way between the beast and its summoner, Ace's next target was obvious. Betting on a new monster appearing again rather than Buzzwole turning around, he completed the circle cut by sweeping his sword at the Consul and went further to rile her up by shouting, "Feeling on edge yet?!"

His bet paid off as L dismissed Buzzwole in favor of Stakataka, though that presented its own problems. The new Ultra Beast manifested in part, forming a brick wall in front of her that Ace’s longsword bounced off of with a loud clang. “Joke while you can!” she hissed as the bricks began to shake, ready to fire off like a stony shotgun blast. And that was when it happened.

The entirely forgotten Mewtwo suddenly appeared directly behind the Moebius, having used Teleport to bypass the protective wall provided by Stakataka. And when he did, the Future Sight he had prepared a few moments ago went off, barraging L with rainbow colored psychic energy from seemingly all directions. And the reason he had repositioned himself became immediately clear when Mewtwo went on the offensive with a near instant follow up use of Psychic for a double whammy of psychic bombardment.

Moebius L was many things, but ‘warrior’ wasn’t one of them. With plenty of power but no real training, she lacked battlefield instincts and awareness, which combined with her natural pride and vengefulness led to severe tunnel vision. When Mewtwo’s Future Sight was fulfilled, surrounding L in a crushing vortex of prismatic light, she could muster no defense. Overwhelmed first by sensory overload and then by an unbearable migraine, she doubled over, clutching her head. From there, it wasn’t much of a challenge for Mewtwo to knock her over with a buffeting wave of brainpower.

Once on the ground, L groaned and writhed. Around her, fragments of various Ultra Beasts formed and unformed in rapid succession, their bodies and limbs awash like watercolors. Taken to the next level by her Moebius transformation, L’s Import allowed her to summon nigh-unlimited Ultra Beasts at a blistering pace, and under her direct control, but removing that independence came at a price. Now they couldn’t come to her aid unless invoked directly, which meant that until she recovered, L seemed to be defenseless.

During such a precious lull in the battle, the Ace Cadet really wanted to use the time to check on Big Band and Wonder Red... but the Consul could bounce back at any moment, putting all of them in danger once more. They had to make sure that once she was down she would stay down, long enough to give them the information they were chasing. The Cadet brought his sword around to further harry her in a series of spirit slashes, cutting into her armor with each pass of the blade.

Mewtwo moved as if to continue his psychic assault, only to… not. After all she and her cohorts had done, was he really feeling pity for this woman? Or was he simply choosing not to sink to the same level as the Consuls themselves? The Pokemon himself wasn’t even sure at this point. But nonetheless, he had not joined in on kicking the Consul while she was down.

After a few moments of punishment, the Consul couldn’t take anymore. Her attempts to get up, break free from the melee, and flee quickly turned into a desperate attempt to protect her head with her bladed arms, but when even that proved insufficient and she couldn’t muster either her powers nor any fighting spirit, only one option remained to her.

L threw her arms up in surrender. “Stop, stop! Enough, please!” Her teeth ground together and her brows furrowed in loathing, but as much as she resented it, she had to swallow her pride. Slices and craters covered her form, and many pieces of her carapace had been broken off. One of her eyes was still blackened from Big Band’s final punch, and her Moebius core shook fitfully as it spun. “I beg you…don’t kill me,” she gasped. “If I die now, it’s all over…I’ll be erased…from the cycle…”

This is it. They had the Consul right where they wanted her. Not out to kill her in the first place, the hunter stopped attacking when the first pleas hit his ears. They just needed her desperate enough to answer their questions - and now she was. Ace looked at Mewtwo, meeting its gaze before staring back down at L. He sucked in a deep breath as a bitterly cold gale swept through, then slammed the tip of his sword down into the steel platform near the Consul's core where it dug in a little. Mercy for the moment.

<”Cycle”?> Mewtwo wondered for a moment as his gaze met Ace’s. <She’s had enough. I don’t know what she means by being erased, but something about it clearly has her terrified.> He privately projected to Ace with his telepathy. Then he began to project his telepathy more publicly so that both of them would hear it. <The Guardian, Consul. How do we stop it?>

“Urk…” L grumbled. She lowered her hands to the ground for support, cool air rushing through her teeth to emerge the next moment in ragged bursts of steam. The break in the action meant that she could begin to recover her composure, and with it her hold over her abilities, but the proximity of Ace’s blade kept her rattled. If she played the part of stereotypical villain now, and lashed out right after successfully begging the heroes’ mercy, she would die with as much ignominy as the rest. Her opponents could practically see the gears turning in her head as she gauged the importance of her own life, and it wasn’t long before she came to her conclusion.

“...Mistletoe,” she hissed. “Baldr…the Highlands’ Guardian…one poke from a sprig of mistletoe, and his invincibility is gone.”

"That simple?" Ace questioned. He was surprised. The word didn't immediately strike the Cadet as something familiar, but if it was a 'sprig' then he knew it was a plant of some kind. Something poisonous if he had to guess, but poisonous enough to get through literal invincibility? It seemed far-fetched. Then again, anything was possible in this world, especially if some magical shenanigans were thrown in.

L gave a derisive scoff. “Would you have guessed it? And even if you did, just one world has hundreds of thousands of kinds of plants.”

At that point a series of heavy, uneven footfalls announced the approach of Big Band. As he limped toward Ace and Mewtwo, they also became aware of Wonder Red beside him, and though Red seemed to be in a better shape than the detective he wasn’t in much of a position to bear the big man’s weight. Though glad to see that his allies had gotten the better of their opponent, Band kept his wary eyes on the transformed Consul, suspicious of any attempts at trickery. “Sounds like BS me to me. How we know you ain’t lyin’?”

“Just look up Baldr on Inter-knot,” L insisted. “He’s some kind of mythical being in his home world. Should be something about mistletoe there. If anyone asks, that’s how you found out…” L’s body began to glow, then dissolve, her Moebius form shed in a cascade of bright purple flakes. When the wind carried the remnants away, L lay there in her human form, her incredibly long blonde hair splayed out across the ground around her. Her eyes were hard as she averted her gaze.

“Hmph…” Band grunted. He looked around at the others. “Good work, y’all. I knew I could leave the rest to you. Assumin’ she’s tellin’ the truth, there’s still the question of what we do now.” His voice had a certain edge to it. Certainly, none of those present had forgotten about Alcamoth.

"Right..."

What to do with L. Ace didn't feel right executing the woman, especially since she'd cooperated - even if it was only to save her own life. But that was just it, she'd begged for her life and gave them the information they needed under the assumption that they would spare it. Going back on that and killing the Consul now would be ruthless, the exact opposite of what a hero of justice would do. But at the same time, he knew they couldn't just let her go.

He yanked the sword out of the platform and slipped it back into its sheath; he could draw it again in an instant if needed. When all of them had come up with this plan, they hadn't talked about this part, the aftermath. It wasn't like they could keep L prisoner or anything... So did it really come down to two options? Kill her, or let her walk away?

Ace mulled it over. Honestly, both of them felt like the wrong answer. When he finally decided on his opinion, he spoke it with a frown. "She knows she's been beaten," he said, "if she swears not to interfere with any of us going forward... then I think we can go our separate ways."

He glanced down at L. "That's not a bad Consul-ation prize, right?"

Mewtwo had been cold and silent the whole, merely listening to the exchange. Most of what L talked about was incomprehensible to him. Balder, mistletoe, inter-knot - It all sounded pretty meaningless to the Pokemon. But the humans seemed to have a better grasp on it, so he’d just defer to them on whether or not the information was good. As for the matter of what to do with the Consul herself? Once again he would defer to the Seekers’ judgment. <...Humans have a habit of giving themselves the role of judge and executioner. But I have no interest in stooping to that level. But if L’s fellow humans here in Edinburgh wish to judge her for her crimes? Then that is their business.>

The fallen woman remained quiet as the others spoke. Though she tried to remain impassive, it was hard to hide her fear. When the victors spoke of clemency, however, a hint of hope ignited in her, and she dared to take furtive glances at their faces in order to gauge their feelings. She knew that she would not be accountable to the gleaming populace of Edinburgh, but now that she knew her power couldn’t triumph over even a handful of isolated Seekers, things wouldn’t be the same. Going forward, L would have to play by their rules. She only hoped that her more powerful compatriots among Moebius, or the Guardians themselves, could halt the heroes’ progress. And if by some miracle they managed to make it to Galeem, and not even the Lord of Light could stop them, did this world really have any right existing at all?

“I won’t interfere,” she insisted. “In fact, if you ever decide it’s time to put a stop to N, I’ll even help you.” L straightened up, fixing her hair in an officious manner. “I’ve…made some mistakes. Clearly. But I know how to keep things running in Edinburgh. That megalomaniac has done nothing but cause problems from day one. A card-carrying villain, straight from a Saturday cartoon. None of us would be sorry to see the last of him. Other than that…” She exhaled shakily, her breath misting in the cold night air. “I’ll abandon the Vanu forces at Eisa Tech Plant as well. Though another Consul may very well commandeer them.” Her eyes settled on Mewtwo. “No more collection, either. You won’t hear from me again. I swear”

Big Band gave L a long, hard look. Then he gave a grumbling exhale. “When the word of law falls, pick it up and hold it higher. Much as I’d like to make you stand trial, lock you up, and throw away the key, we ain’t got the means, and I ain’t one to stoop to frontier justice, either.” The big man stepped back with a grunt. “But if you make us regret it, we’ll be back, and I guarantee you won’t like what comes next. We clear?”

Some semblance of prideful indignity welled up within L, like bile from her stomach, but with a deep breath she pushed it down. After reigning supreme in her own little world for so long, tonight had been one hell of a reality check, and if she didn’t want to throw away her life for nothing, she would have to make her peace with it. She reached up and pressed a button at the base of her collar, re-equipping her helmet, only to take it off again -physically this time- and hold it in her hands. When she spoke, her voice was a hoarse croak. “...Crystal.” Then she let her helmet fall and clatter against the snow-strewn ground.

Ace Cadet eased up following L's words. It was a relief that their plan had worked so well, and a nice bonus that they hadn't needed to take the woman's life. Usually things didn't quite work out that way. Now the only thing left to do was regroup with Linkle and the others and go from there. Assuming they could use this inter-knot thing to confirm what L said, they could also use it to find out where to get mistletoe. If it was something they couldn't get their hands on in the city and had to track it down in the wild, his scoutbugs would easily be able to handle the job.

Ace turned to his comrades. The mood was far from celebratory, but he gave them a smile anyway for a job well done. "I guess we can cool down now that we got what we need," he said, pulling a lifepowder from his bag. "For now anyway." After all, what came next would eventually be taking on another Guardian.

In the midst of the celebratory mood, however, Wonder Red seemed distracted. “About that…I’m getting a signal.”

“A signal?” Band questioned sharply. He immediately looked at L, but she shook her head, looking just as surprised. “What kind of signal?”

Red peered up at the night sky as a fragment of its blackness began to grow closer, flanked by what looked like miniature comets. “We’re about to find out.”

The faint sound of jet engines and rocket thrusters grew steadily louder over the rush of arctic wind as a broad shape approached from the sky, flying in from a high angle, and the closer it got the clearer it became. Though roughly shaped like a plane, it appeared to be bulky for its wingspan, with a forward bent and some kind of weapon attached to its nose beneath its cockpit. Adjustable thrusters and flaps accounted for a focus on maneuverability over raw speed, demonstrated when the aircraft turned around upon getting close enough to the brim of the Edinburgh Pumpkin’s colossal hat. As the thrust from its engines sent clouds of snowflakes billowing away, a large cargo bay door swung down to form a ramp and reveal a familiar face to Wonder Red. With that trim gray mustache, black admiral’s cap, and steaming cup of tea, it could only be Captain Lawrence Nelson, leader of the Wonderful 101. After taking a sip from his beverage, he lowered the transmitter he’d been studying in order to size up the lost Seekers before him.

“It would appear that we’ve found you at last.”

After wrapping up his call with Giovanna, Goldlewis made his way back down through the Avenger to loiter around the bottom floor until the second batch of Seekers arrived. On the way down he did consider the fact that there would be a third pickup even later that night, and given his level of fatigue he almost certainly couldn’t stay up for that event, but he reasoned that even if he’d have to hit the hay without accounting for everyone, he could at least do right by the Mafia Town contingent.

Once he reached Deployment, the veteran quickly realized that he was in good company. Apparently Primrose had the same idea, though given the presence of her friend Therion amongst those who weathered the week on the southwestern sea. During their last big assignments Goldlewis and Primrose had been on different teams, and their days in Meridi-at-han didn’t afford them many opportunities to talk, but by now he’d managed to glean that the two octopath travelers hailed from the same world. In his mind, bonds like those were of vital importance. He and Giovanna were much the same, after all. The two of them had very little in common; one was an enormous, middle-aged American man from a well-to-do family in the south, serious in his duty but prone to inner turmoil, while the other happened to be a young and beautiful Brazilian woman born from poverty-stricken streets, flippantly lackadaisical and self-centered, but unerringly sound of mind and body. They’d formed a bond through pure chance, and it was through chance again that their bond had been rediscovered in the World of Light, where they could anchor one another in this upside-down, unfamiliar world. In the same way, he reasoned that Primrose and Therion must be anchors for one another, so if nothing else seeing the two of them reunited would be heartening for Goldlewis too.

He did feel a little bad about showing up in a wifebeater and sweats while Primrose looked as glamorous as ever in her tailor-made getup from Gerudo Town, but Goldlewis wasn’t one to put on unnecessary airs, and he doubted the dancer would fault him. This was a war, after all, and wars had a way of laying oneself bare to one’s comrades, in one way or another.

Soon enough the Mafia Town contingent arrived via fulton, collected from the sky and hauled in like fish from the sea. Once the catch of the day quit floundering and got to their feet, it didn’t take everyone long to disperse. Sandalphon departed for the infirmary after addressing concerns from both Ms Fortune and the Koopa Kids, while Primrose and Therion took turns catching up. A few moments after the two teams first came together, the little groups switched things up, with Primrose reaching out to the troubled youngsters while Nadia got into a somewhat heated confrontation with Juri out in the hall. After that, and seeing Captain Falcon lead the still-gleaming Snake away into the ship for reasons Goldlewis felt pretty confident guessing at, the veteran made himself scarce. Everyone who descended to Mafia Town last week had made it back, and like the Meridi-at-han group they even returned alongside new talent, so his heart was at ease. He always felt anxious when away from his comrades, seldom trusting in anything but his own strength to see his allies to safety, but this new team of his had definitely proven they didn’t always need his help. Still, whenever the time came that they needed it, the Seekers would find that Goldlewis Dickinson had their back. Slowly, the veteran made his way to the sleeping quarters, where he found the room he shared with Roland. After taking off and folding up his glasses, he squeezed himself into his bunk, and laid his head to rest. Tomorrow, the Seekers would need all the fortitude they could get.

Meanwhile, after her encounter with Juri, Nadia went in a different direction. Between diving in the Blue Hole with Dave and rumbling with wrestlers all over Mafia Town, it had been an eventful day, but the plucky feral wasn’t running out of energy just yet. If anything her heart-pounding ascent to the Avenger and the exasperating argument that followed had her fired up. Unreasonable, incorrigible, and outrageous, that Juri really knew how to push Nadia’s buttons. Her warped perspective and snarky attitude made her want to shred that woman like a couch sometimes, but now their long-running feud was over. To an extent Nadia knew she’d miss trading barbs and blows with that brat, but now that she knew just how genuinely unstable Juri really was, she couldn’t condone adding any more fuel to that trash fire. Better to just cut out that toxic influence than risk any more bad decisions. Being rid of Juri came with one problem, though: a drink actually would’ve been pretty nice right about now, and she’d spurned Juri’s beer as a matter of principle. A quick visit to Stolen Moments would help her relax and wind down for the night.



It took a little while for Nadia to find her way through the Avenger, since unlike Sandalphon she’d done zero internalization of its labyrinthine layout. After a couple wrong turns, though, the feral hunted down the airship’s bar, tucked quietly away in a lonesome, darkly-lit corner of its aft section. Inside, the room was styled to resemble an establishment from an older, lower-tech era, with middling success. Without much in the way of wood or decor beyond a three-layer quarter-circle shelf with various memorabilia, it relied on the contours of its bar counter and the festival lights that hung from it to seem more rustic and homely. Across from the more warmly-lit countertop, however, lay a wall of plaques beneath a cool blue glow. Each one bore dozens of names, lined up in neat stacks with military efficiency. With its memorial wall and ample stocks of booze, this was Stolen Moments, a place of contemplative solitude and mournfulness rather than raucous parties. Being something of a raucous partygoer herself, Nadia didn’t indulge in the depressing atmosphere here often, but there was a time and place for everything.

Just as she expected, Cirrus wasn’t here. Sandalphon and Goldlewis might be considerate enough to stay up and receive everyone, but Stolen Moments’ bartender had his own melancholy to deal with. Nadia thought she’d be alone, free to help herself to a beverage or two, leave some zenny on the counter, and then take off, but it looked like that wouldn’t be the case. The moment she entered she spotted a huge man seated at the bar, his weight distributed across two stools. Rivaling Goldlewis in height, the man looked like a giant can wrapped in a beige trench coat, with elaborate brass instrumentation protruding from his back and an old-fashioned felt fedora perched on his head. For a moment the sight of him paralyzed Nadia with a sense of unidentifiable familiarity, but when he glanced over at the new arrival and the cat burglar got a good look at his face, she suddenly remembered. “You!” she exclaimed, snapping her fingers. “You’re from my world!”

Big Band raised an eyebrow at her for a moment before a pleasant smile broke out across his face. “Oh, yeah. We met way back in Twilight Town. Guess it ain’t even been two weeks, but it sure feels like a lifetime, heh. Good to see ya, miss kitty.”

“You can call me Ms Fortune!” the feral told him as she trotted over.

“Misfortune? Heh. Don’t look it to me, but if you say so.” A wry, knowing smile on his face, Band extended a tiny mechanical arm with rubber nubs on its metal fingertips to carefully grasp his deep orange sidecar cocktail and swirl it around. “We mighta been strangers in our world, but ‘round here, it’s like sharin’ a hometown. So please, call me Ben.”

Having seated herself at the bar, Nadia stared off into space for a moment, elbows on the counter as the gears turned in her head. Then she looked up at Band, a genuine grin on her face. “Ben, huh? Well then. In that case, I guess you’d better call me Nadia.”

After sipping his drink, and savoring the mixture of spiced cognac with zesty citrus cointreau, Band put the glass down with a smile. “Nadia. Pleased to meet ya.”

A few moments of quiet passed as Nadia ducked behind the counter to grab a glass and fill it with beer. Once she returned with a cup full of hoppy froth, she restarted the conversation. “So, big guy. Where’ve you ‘Ben’? Last I saw you, we were running from those crazy cats in the Metro. Getting chased is not a good ‘feline’, eh?”

Band chuckled. “Me, Wonder Red, and the Ace Cadet missed the trains, so we high-tailed it outta the Metro. Turns out, the hub’s smack dab in the middle of a giant city on an island way up in the frozen north. Cold as all hell, and it wasn’t long before we ran afoul of the locals, too. The name of the cat who put the hit on us is N, and that city -Edinburgh- is his playground. We ended up gettin’ into a whole lotta fights, but long story short, we found the Skullgirl.”

Though she’d been thinking about Ace since Band mentioned him, the word ‘Skullgirl’ made Nadia’s brows shoot up in an instant. All of a sudden, memories about finding the Skull Heart in Redgraccoon City -memories about Linkle- came flooding back. “No way. What happened?”

“Well, since you’re from New Meridian an’ all, you know about Skullgirls as well as I do. They’re undead nightmares, catastrophes waitin’ to happen. I went in ready to kill her. But it looks like this new Skullgirl’s one tough cookie. Somehow, she managed to keep a hold of herself. She joined forces with us, and we put together a plan to corner Consul L and force the secret of the Highlands’ Guardian outta her.” He paused for suspense, trying not to smile at Nadia’s wide-open eyes. “...And, against all odds, it worked. I took a couple big hits -spent most of today gettin’ fixed up in fact- but the others brought L down and exchanged the secret for her life.”

Nadia whistled. “Wow. Heck of a consul-ation prize.”

At that, Band couldn’t help but grin. “Y’know, Ace made that joke too. Y’all gotta get better material.”

Trying not to look too worried, Nadia leaned on the counter and attempted to casually sip her beer. “Sooooo….uh, about Ace…” She drank the wrong way and coughed, sputtering foam. “Ugh! Ack! Ahuh! Ah, hmm…Ace, is he…doing okay? Is he here?”

“He’s fine. Restin’ up in his room, I bet.” Band gave her the side-eye, his brow raised. “Wanna know which one?”

In an instant Nadia was on her feet, her beverage all but forgotten. “Hell yeah! I’ve gotta give that hun-turd a piece of my mind! Dude just vanished without a trace, gone for what, two weeks? That jerk’s in for one hell of a smack!”

“Uh oh. Well, as an officer of the law, I can’t stand by ‘til justice is served.” Band finished off his drink, then pushed off his stools. When he hit the ground, the room practically shook beneath him. “Follow me.”



With so many allies rallied together, even taking down the Avatar of Corruption himself seemed like a sure thing. The remains of his loathsome forces wriggled free of the wreck and attempted to push out of the crater around him and give their master room to breathe, but the steadfast angels of the Army of Light kept them hemmed in, making their extermination a simple matter that Pit was only too happy to attend to. As the misshapen monstrosities faltered and died by the dozen, it became all the more apparent -even to Absalom himself- that the infestation plaguing Skyworld would die here today. All that remained was to wipe out their master.

At Edward and Uriel’s command, the winged archers lent their bows to a withering volley against their marked target. A blazing gunshot form Edward himself punctuated their bombardment, and without a moment’s reprieve Midna and her Beast Legion hurled themselves into the thick of it for a brutal flurry of fists and claws. Her other summons then took over just long enough for a massive sphere of runic twilight energy that threatened to leave Absalom cratered a second time. Ortho then fell upon the nephilim like a hawk on a vole, his beak a plow through the pitch-black soil of Absalom’s body, giving Edelgard, Pit, and Dante the chance for an elemental assault. In the wake of their onslaught their foe managed to catch Edelgard in his grasp, his corruption threatening not just her life but her very sense of self, but a courageous and timely intervention from Pit spared the lady knight a grisly fate, and the next moment a Friend Heart from Roxas freed her mind. As they retreated, Absalom threatened to seize the momentum for himself, but Roxas and Dante quickly teamed up to shut him down. The Cerberus triplets unleashed their full power, and their maelstrom of elemental punishment culminated in a climactic flying thrust from both blademasters at once.

Finally, sensing that Absalom’s demise was at hand, Uriel swooped in to do her duty. While Sectonia savaged the area with a deluge of pure-white blades and sped up her allies with her magic, Uriel and Dante put their skills on full display with a non-stop beatdown of melee strikes. Already wounded and flagging, Absalom’s attempts to fight back proved to be in vain as the two styled on him, until finally the SSS-crank combo ended with Sectonia’s Ethereal Gleam. Both fighters expected him to be dust after that, but the inexhaustible Avatar of Chaos managed to prove them wrong and push them back–though only for a moment. Even as Dante pulled back for a moment to reassess, Sectonia and Uriel pushed in to seal the deal. Finally, their cleaving blades split Absalom’s body from neck to navel, and the final blast blew his halves apart, ending the corruption once and for all.

At least, until next time.

When no more lashing tentacles or squirming screwworms arose from the ashes, the angels roared in a chorus of cheers. Nathaniel, Fodoquia, Ochlys, and even Uriel herself all let loose their exultations. With so much enthusiasm all around in the wake of their hard-earned victory, it was hard for the Seekers to stay quiet. Dante whooped in celebration, and after assuming their human forms Cerberus joined in with gusto. After a few moments, Palutena’s voice rang out through the sky, silencing the voices of her heavenly host. ”Angels of Skyworld, I salute you! Rejoice, for our despicable enemy is no more. Let us all return to homes, nurse our wounds, mourn our dead, and sleep soundly in the knowledge that the skies are finally clear!”

After her proclamation, rays of shadow began to cut through the sky. The magic of the Dream Blossom was fading, the new dawn that heralded the angels’ victory quickly giving way to darkness. Even with night fallen once more, though, the stars glimmered in the heavens, and the ephemeral radiance of the minor erdtree fell softly across the sky islands. It was a gentle and glorious night, and the angels would sleep soundly indeed.

Of course, for the Seekers of Light, their campaign was far from over.

“Whoo!” As the Army of Light departed, the heroes regrouped atop the final island, and Dante still seemed to be riding high. Given all the excitement, the Triple Demon was in good spirits too, even if the actual bloodshed had been pretty minimal. He rolled his shoulders and flexed his arms, stretching. “Exciting, huh? Feel like I hit the jackpot with this one. And that guy wasn’t even a Guardian! Can’t imagine what we’ve got in store next. Course, I’m more of a one-on-one kind of guy. Not counting the girls here!” He caught one of the triplets in a headlock as she barged past him and patted her on the head between her snow-white ears, only for her to bite his arm and prompt an early release. Even that didn’t seem to dampen his mood, though. “Speaking of ‘what comes next’. Here.” He reached into the Inventory where he typically kept his non-Cerberus weapon and withdrew a bag. After opening it, he dumped out a bunch of bundles that looked like skydiving packs. “This is how we’re supposed to get back to the Avenger. The ship’s coming round again any minute now, so say your goodbyes and strap one on! There’s enough for everyone…probably?” If there were more people coming than mission control accounted for, some of the Seekers would have to get creative.

At that point Uriel, who had yet to depart, stepped forward. “You’re leaving?” After receiving confirmation, she nodded. “I understand. As does Lady Palutena. This was always going to be a temporary arrangement. On behalf of all of Skyworld, allow me to thank you for your efforts. No…for making this outcome possible. Though it pains me to say, we may not have been able to do it without you.” The commander of the Hellguard offered a seldom-earned nod of respect. “Should you find cause to return, you will always be welcome in our skies. May the Father and Creator watch over you.”

Before long, the angels’ esteemed guests underwent a skyward ascension of their own, and were gone.

---

A few minutes after activating their fultons, the bulk of the Seekers deployed to Skyworld came to in the alloyed bowels of the Avenger, surrounded by heavy-duty machinery. The reinforced hull shook beneath their feet as they picked themselves up, the unusual amount of jostling indicative of greater-than-usual turbulence. Given how high the ship needed to go to get a safe distance above the sky islands, though, the turbulence was understandable. Even if it was reverse-engineered from alien craft and constructed from exotic materials and technology, the Avenger wasn’t a spaceship, and there were altitudes that not even it could reach.

The new arrivals might have expected to find the ever-helpful Sandalphon waiting for them, but a quick look around dispelled that notion. Instead of the archangel, they found a somewhat less holy individual waiting for them. He looked like a young man of nineteen or so, thin and somewhat pale, with light auburn hair slicked back and horned-rimmed glasses over eyes that never seemed to open. He wore an outfit somewhere between a priest’s and a doctor’s, with a red cross-shaped tie. On his belt the others could see both med kits and what looked like a spiked beatstick.

“Good evening, and congratulations on your victory” he greeted them. “I’m Eleison, one of the Lost Numbers. I’m here to receive you in lieu of Sandalphon. Nothing happened to her, but after receiving an examination from myself and Dr. Yu, we’ve ‘asked’ her to retire for the night to get some much-needed sleep. Once you’ve settled down from your trip and gotten comfortable, I imagine that’s what awaits you, as well. Rest well, comrades, because we’ve got even bigger fish to fry starting tomorrow. If you have any questions regarding accommodations…” He looked upward, thinking. “Well, Sagi is probably sleeping. But I’m sure you can figure something out. Starting tonight the Avenger is your base of operations, so please make yourselves at home.”

“Can do!” Dante waltzed past him, clapping Eleison on the shoulder. “And get yourself some rest too, eh kid?”

Eleison gave him an odd smile. “Of course…” He then turned to bid the others farewell. “Good night.”

The Mercenary stood at the exit of the pool; beating his target to it as he drew his .45 to hold-up the emerging suited man, halting his escape. Before he could speak, however, a voice shouted from behind him toward the pool hall doors.

“Wait! Whatever this guy’s trying to pull on you, let me be the one to deal with him.” The Mercenary's body bladed to the right as he kept his .45 trained on the figure, stepping to the side to allow the men behind him to speak to the man called Mabuchi. As the men conversed, his suspicions were confirmed: his contact with this 'Consul-I' happened to be the sole cause of the mysterious cargo ship's arrival. The Mercenary's aim steeled onto Mabuchi, yet any perceived wane of composure was quickly quashed.

”Snake?”

That got the Mercenary's attention, involuntarily turning his head to look at the man. That name sounded familiar, so how did he know it? When the man finished speaking, the Mercenary glanced back at Mabuchi, still holding him at gunpoint. A pawn to this Consul's scheme, now reaping what he sowed with blood on his hands. The man made an offer to join him and assist his organization in stopping Moebius, perhaps even the Consuls themselves. He got all he needed out of the soaked mobster, yet now he had a new set of questions poised for the two men. The Mercenary eyed Mabuchi for a moment longer, before thumbing the safety on his pistol and holstering it. Even if Mabuchi was solely responsible for the attack on Mafia Town, killing him would be a waste of a bullet, and his failure was enough of a punishment. Turning toward the man, the Mercenary met his outstretched hand and gave a firm shake. If they needed people like him to help stop this approaching threat, he wasn't going to shirk at the request.

"Where to?"

---

When Captain Falcon met with the other Seekers in Bancho Sushi with Snake in tow, he of course had a little explaining to do. Not that that would be difficult. ”New recruit.” Cap explained with a thumb pointed in Snake’s direction. ”He’s someone I used to know from, well, the start of all this.” Cap added, trying not to say anything specific about Galeem since he already knew that wouldn’t work around someone who was still Gleaming. Not that this would make anything any clearer from Snake’s perspective. If anything it probably made him even more confused to have a total stranger treating him like an old friend.

He was right.This man- he had only seen him zipping around the lower levels of Mafia Town on his bike- winding between back alleys and performing insane acrobatics- too fast for any of the irritated Mafia guards to catch. Now he was claiming to know him as an ‘old friend’? He didn’t remember ever being introduced to him prior to today. Not to mention, the name he referred to him by: Snake.

Distant echoes sounded, faint and nearly obscured in his mind against the backdrop of chittering seagulls and the gentle breeze of seawater air. Some were yells, others were short quips. By him? By who? Why was everything so familiar, yet alien all the same? This was where he was, wasn’t it? The more the man’s repetition of this name resonated through his head, the more familiar it seemed. Why

”Like I said, It’ll all make sense once we’re back on the ship.” Cap reassured Snake. Speaking of which, not long after this was when Sandalphon dropped down with a delivery for the Mercenary - a fulton device that the man would turn out to be rather familiar with using. Which was pretty convenient, since that meant it was something that wouldn’t need to be explained to him. When he was ready, Cap activated his own fulton and - just like time - passed out after feeling it yank him upward.

When the device was passed to him by Sandaphalon in her hasty introduction, little more than what resembled a safety harness with a parachute-style pack secured between the six harness straps, yet another tirade of scattered, blurred whispers assailed his mind. The familiarity of this device was second nature. Even as the other man mounted, secured and unceremoniously flung himself skyward, his own procedure was seconds behind; threading the harness through the attachment loops on his suit, synching them tight, and pulling the ripcord as he dangled like a marionette before ascending to the Heavens. He had no time to question it, yet as darkness overcame him, he continued to wonder just who this man was, and what he just signed himself up for.

The briefing commenced shortly after Snake came to, adjusting himself aboard the bizarre ‘ship’ that behaved more like a floating aircraft carrier, at least seeming to him. Everyone who had presumably arrived in the same manner as himself had long since dispersed, leaving himself, the man from before, the familiar-looking catwoman from the theater, and Sandaphalon, who had passed him a Fulton. The man listened in silence as she went into her speech, no doubt having done so minutes prior to his ascent to the Avenger, and within moments had even more questions swirling around his head- almost tempted to echo them out loud. The Avenger, a mobile base of operations? Amenities? Flying Fortress? Just like..

The catlike woman mused aloud. The one thing the man noted her for why she was recognizable, was the near-incessant puns she made every other sentence. Now about his eye no less. Twice! The man’s ocean blue gaze narrowed to glare at her in slight irritation at her lack of decorum, but it was quickly brushed aside. It was something he had to live with, and if they were going to be working together, he had to live with it. After the angel and the catwoman went their separate ways, just as he was going to explore himself, the familiar visage of the musclebound man from before had arrived into Deployment, and made a beeline straight for him.

When Falcon had awoken, he and everyone else were in the hangar aboard the Avenger. He could have dispersed and returned to his quarters, but instead he stuck around so that he could make good on his promise to Snake. Cap was a man of his word, after all. ”Welcome aboard the Avenger.” He said to Snake after he found him and made sure he woke up from being passed out. ”It’s a mobile aerial base. We can drop back down to the surface using those hellpods over there,” Cap said pointing over to where the devices in question were waiting. ”and you already know how we get back up here.”

As the man explained, he looked around to scrutinize every minute detail of Deployment. It was much like an aircraft hangar in its construction, albeit filled with a smattering of devices he’d never seen before. Illuminated terminals with lit keyboards, sliding hydraulic doors, the ceiling that, judging from the four equidistant lifting pistons across the four corners of the hangar, suggested that it was able to be lowered and raised to facilitate the deployment of vehicles and personnel to the (presumable) flight deck at the top. Considering his circumstance, he had taken a leap of faith in trusting this man after the chaos of the night, and now it was time to get some much needed explanation like he’d promised.

”Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’ve never met you. How do you know that name?” His voice sounded rough, as gravelly and weathered as his expression, with a notable lisp to boot. He was puzzled, but didn’t give much emotion to his question as his nature was unusually reserved. There was a slight baritone growl of the Snake that Falcon swore he knew, yet this man seemed different. Not an imposter, no. Blazermate thought she knew him from somewhere, even commenting how he looked like a renown “action hero”- but Falcon knew his name. As the horned Mercenary scrutinized the man’s details up close, he at least hoped he didn’t sound too aggressive to the cobalt-clad figure who convinced his signage onto this odd task force.

”Hmm, well…” Falcon said with a slight bit of hesitation in his tone. How could he even begin to explain? Well the simple fact was that there was no way to really explain, at least not while Snake was still gleaming. That meant that the most direct way for this to make sense was to… But should he really do that right here in Deployment? Might cause some unintentional collateral damage if he did. The best possible place to carry this out was no doubt going to be the training room. ”I was about to hit the gym to unwind a bit. If you’d care to come along I’ll be happy to tell you the whole story there while I do some workouts. Whaddya say?”

The Mercenary let out a low grumble as he reached up a hand to rub at the back of his neck. He really wasn’t feeling like physical conditioning right now, but he might as well accompany the man along on his endeavors. Why specifically they had to venture to the gym so that he could get more answers, he didn’t know. “..Right, fine. Let’s go.”

With that, Cap led the way out of Deployment. They passed by one lift section that he explained to Snake would take them up to the Proving Ground where new weapons and machines could be properly tested, the Stockpile storage facility, Common Room, Laboratory and Living Quarters. They continued on a straight shot out Deployment via the far end door which would eventually take them to the lift section for the opposite. This was the lift they took, with Cap explaining that this lift could take them directly to Engineering and Cargo Bay, and further up would be the Stolen Moments Bar, Isolation Ward, and the Workshop. He decided to leave out explaining the Spirit Chamber for now, figuring it was best for him to process the big concepts one at a time, starting with getting de-storied first. He could learn about Spirits afterward and probably after he had a chance to sleep on all this and process it first.

But it was at the Workshop where the lift stopped and he and Snake entered. Inside was Tora, assuming the little guy hadn’t already gone to bed for the night, whom Cap offered a quick wave to as he took the Mercenary to a door on the far end of the room. Through it was the Training Center, situated between the Workshop and Laboratory. And as it turned out, it was actually more than just a gym. There was gym equipment in here, sure. But there was also a compact boxing ring for sparring and even a fully functioning firing range for target practice. ”Here we are! Pretty spiffy, eh?”

The Mercenary glanced around the ‘Training Center’, beneath his stoic nature impressed at the design of such a facility. It reminded him yet again of a room so familiar, yet blurred beneath the veil of fog that seemed to obscure what he already knew. After a moment of contemplation, he mused with a gravelly noise. ““Whoever runs this ‘ship’ knows what they’re doing. Kudos to them.” The Mercenary had taken position on Falcon’s left, turning his head momentarily to meet his gaze. “Suppose you’ll get to physical conditioning while I ask some questions, then? I’ll start. What’s your name, kid? And how do you know me?”

‘Snake’ spoke with an air of creeping suspicion now. That's why he was brought here, wasn’t it? He mentally chided himself for asking the others’ name so late, but he was sure the man would forgive his tardiness. Yet it was odd, how this man seemed to dance around his word choice before he spoke. He’d noticed the angel Sandalphalon doing the same earlier, back at the coastal eatery before he was brought to the ship. It wasn’t like he didn’t trust the man or the members of his organization, he just didn’t know them well enough, and their caged nature he observed while they interacted with him erred him on the side of caution.

Kid? He couldn’t even remember the last time anyone had called him a kid. But he answered nevertheless. ”Captain Falcon.” Cap then grew eerily quiet, not exactly thrilled about what he was about to do. But there was no other way. ”I’m sorry about this.” He muttered just before, without any kind of warning, his body twisted and winded up into a high spinning kick aimed squarely at the Mercenary’s head. Cap himself was fairly superhuman, and Robert Garcia’s spirit had added an edge of expertise into his martial arts strikes. So the kick was swift, hard, and precise. Essentially designed to stun a target and leave them open to a follow up strike. But Cap had no way of knowing that this single kick would end up dealing way more damage than he thought it would as it connected with the Mercenary’s head and, most critically, his “horn”.

The Mercenary’s suspicions had been confirmed at Falcon’s murmur. Microseconds of minute movement made the horned man instinctively tense; only able to bring his arms to form a crossguard over his chest- but his reactions seemed much slower, much more delayed compared to Falcon’s stunning speed. He’d merely braced to block his chest, but that wasn’t what his opponent was aiming for. Falcon’s leg extended diagonally upward, and for a brief moment, the Mercenary’s grizzled expression, grimaced into a scowl of sudden combat, showed fear.

The carbide-titanium ‘horn’ that was mounted into the upper right front of his head was kicked; barely a budge from the structure itself, but it was what was contained within that rattled around in his brain. A starburst of color erupted across his field of view; with flashes of red-and-white dominating the edges of his peripheral vision as every color seemed to take a monotone hue. Snake’s head snapped back, mouth contorted in silent agony as every muscle tensed. Within the next second, he was on the floor. No sound came from the downed man as he lay sprawled out across the floor, and should Falcon have approached him, he would see the unmistakable golden ‘glint’ of Galeem’s effects shining brightly within his singular blue eye. However, Snake was far from being out of the fight. Little by little, his condition stabilized. Through the jerky movements of his muscles returning to functionality, his hands flailed, clenching and unclenching into fists as his arms began to reach over to his holstered guns. Impressively, and alarmingly, it seemed as though the Mercenary was fighting against his own seizure to kill his newly acquired target. Whether this was a byproduct of Galeem’s influence was unknown.

A stunned Captain Falcon stared for a moment. ”W-What?” He stammered, unable to comprehend why a single opening kick like that could leave the Mercenary like this. He was just trying to weaken him a bit, not outright kill him! ”I’m sorry! It wasn’t supposed to be that hard! Hang in there!” He said, putting his gloved hand over his chest and practically scrambling to produce a pink Friend Heart as a result. ”This’ll fix you back up and make you remember everything, I swear!” Cap vowed as he knelt down and shoved the Friend Heart he had produced into the writhing Mercenary.

“G-UhA!” A strangled croak came from the horned man as his muscles tensed, then finally relented as he went lax against the ground. The pinprick of ‘glint’ that constituted Galeem’s influence lit with a single bright spark, then died out into the air above Snake’s eye. His eye was now wide open, locked into place and staring at a nondescript point at the ceiling above him. If not for his steadying respirations, he would’ve assumed to be dead. Yet something else was happening. A deluge of memories flooded into his mind. The color of the world faded into negatives of their contrast as he lay on the floor.

Snake blinked, and for another moment, he was in his helicopter. Paz lay on a combat stretcher, screaming in agony as a bomb was wrenched from her abdomen by the Medic close by. Then, a frantic transmission from Miller. XOF attacked Mother Base in a sudden ambush while he was rescuing Paz and Chico- the base was scrambling to evacuate. Time dilated; moving from scene to scene as Snake screamed in rage, holding a MSF soldier who had been shot in the head seconds earlier; one-handing his rifle and firing into the group of XOF soldiers as he climbed back into the Helicopter at Kaz's plea. Then, back to Paz- as she wearily stood up, the helicopter door still open, and dove backward out into the open waters below to save them from a secondarily implanted bomb. Snake let out an anguished cry, as the Medic positioned himself to shield the man from the coming explosion. "NO!" A flash of orange-white light, heat, and darkness followed.

“P-Paz… Chico.. XOF..” The Mercenary muttered, barely above a whisper.

The hospital in Cyprus… he survived the attack on Mother Base, awakening from a nine year coma. The Assassin, strangling him mercilessly before being attacked by another patient. The man lit her on fire as she screamed, falling out the hospital window as the patient introduced himself as Ishmael. They made their escape as the hospital came under siege by a towering Man on Fire, and a levitating figure in a gasmask. Stealing an ambulance, they made their hasty escape- only to be thrown off the road as the patient was killed; sending their vehicle crashing into a ravine. When he came too, he saw his former rival and old friend Revolver Ocelot, riding atop none other than the Boss’s horse. The Russian cowpoke caught him up to speed in the time he had missed. The formation of PF’s across the world, the disbandment of FOX, the rise of the Cold War…The attackers. XOF. The rogue CIA detachment that had succeeded in destroying Mother Base, succeeded in killing Paz and Chico.

He’d make them all pay. He was going to rebuild Mother Base. Bring The Legend back to life.

He just had to find Kaz.

“Ocelot..” Snake whispered, his eye twitching as more memories assailed his mind relentlessly.

Snake was standing on the Medical platform, having just stepped off the Blackhawk with his arm wrapped around his injured friend Kazuhira Miller. The man had just been rescued from his Soviet captors, missing an arm and a leg as he leaned into Snake for support. Delirious, dehydrated, wounded in body and spirit.

‘The world calls for wetwork, and we answer. No greater good. No just cause.’

‘Kaz..’ Snake said. The man needed rest; he was in no state to launch into another one of his tirades. Kazuhira Miller turned to Snake, sweat glistening off his ashen pale face as his aviators darkened from the sun's blinding light. Snake felt the man's arm tighten around the broad length of his back. ‘Cipher sent us to Hell.. but we're going even deeper.’ Kaz growled.

‘I know... I'm already a demon.’ Snake responded. Something in his mind tugged at him; calling to question the nature of that statement. Maybe to Diamond Dogs, to Cipher, Skull Face, XOF, even that bastard Huey... but not here. Not here. Heaven had no place for people like him, either. Was this Purgatory?

“Kaz..” The man said, voice barely a rumble.

The PF they’d formed was no longer MSF. Diamond Dogs, it was decided. Everything was coming back. D-Horse, D-Walker, the wolf pup, rescued from the Afghanistan mountains and named DD. Every single one an invaluable companion he’d bonded to, yet there was one who left the greatest impression on him- even though she nearly killed him the first time they met. Her.

The XOF Assassin sent to kill him in the hospital, somehow surviving and then hunting and killing Soviet patrols under the Afghanistan moonlight. He defeated her after a long and grueling duel, and captured her to bring her into the fold of Mother Base. Initially escaping the Aerial Command Center just as it left the ground, it was later proven feigned as she watched him under her organic cloak; coming to aid when the helicopter had been strafed by a jet sent by XOF. A single shot from her sniper rifle two miles away inside a moving helicopter had found its mark as the fighter jet came around for another pass; the plane losing altitude and plummeting into the ocean below. ‘Quiet’ was the name the Soviets gave to her due to her silent nature- it was a perfect addition to the ragtag nomenclature that constituted the Diamond Dogs. He preferred to work alone in the field, yet her sniper support became invaluable during their various missions together. Despite Miller’s protests, Snake vowed to take personal responsibility for her should she betray them, but it never happened. The guards antagonized her at first; degrading her with venomous whispers and defacing the entrance to her cell on the Medical platform with scribbled messages such as ‘freak’, ‘witch’, ‘mutant’, and ‘monster’. Every night after his rounds on base, Snake stopped by the Medical platform to see her. Every night, he’d scowl at the defaced sign and scratch it out with his knife, much to the chagrin of the guard on watch. Every night, he would make that guard leave his post, and go visit Quiet to sit with her in their shared silence. Their fate was bound by lives lived not of their own volition, and that commonality, he believed, was what made them so close.

Yet that peace off the battlefield was never destined to last.

Mother Base was besieged by an invisible enemy; a parasite that activated through a person’s native language. It started with Kikongo speakers at first, then transferred with the virulence of a virus across the rest of Mother Base’s staff and soldiers. Snake’s only hope of a cure rested within the creator of the Parasite- an elderly Navajo man, embittered by the “civilization” of his people at the hands of the Americans. Code Talker’s cure was a double-edged sword; ridding him and his men of the Parasite’s effects, yet rendering them completely infertile. It was a price he was willing to pay without hesitation.

97 soldiers and staff died under his watch by the time the dust had settled. For six hours, he stood in the rain as the fallen were cremated into ash on a separate platform from Mother Base; their draped caskets ferrying orange embers out to sea as the rest burned away. Even after everyone left, She never did. His revenge was fueled twofold, but nothing would compare to the mistake that was rescuing Huey Emmerich.

”Ngh… Quiet… Huey…” Snake growled out the latter’s name, his single eye becoming more erratic in movement as his brow twitched.

That man was the cause and the effect. A frail egghead with an annoying cadence and shrewd and cowardly demeanor. The sole executioner of the Peace Walker project utilized by Hot Coldman during his operation in Costa Rica. That man cost him everything, and Snake had the naivety to let him into Diamond Dogs. It was innocuous at first, full of apology for previous transgressions. Working with the Soviets, working with Skull Face- Snake should have known he was a Cipher plant all along. Yet, he took him in. Under the guise of building Battle Gear, Diamond Dogs’ own personal Metal Gear for their combat operations, he purposefully mutated the neutralized Parasite and caused a second Outbreak.

The blood he shed that day was his own. He watched his staff, frenzied, attacking each other and him. The men and women he’d personally visit across each and every platform, getting to learn them as soldiers, as comrades- their inspirations, their ambitions, their ticks and quirks. Some resigned to their fate. Some cowarded. A group of them stood at attention, humming a song in solidarity as they were killed at his hand. Not even the last survivor made it; exhibiting symptoms just as he was preparing to leave the airlock with him in his arms. By the time he had left, Snake was covered in blood as he ripped off his mask, dropping to his knees and releasing a guttural howl of rage and anguish.

Just as quickly as it began, it ended. The memory of those lost would live on as diamonds from their ashes. When Huey was discovered to have caused the second Outbreak, he was not killed for his traitorous act. Snake decided to let him go, and let him rot in his failure. Just like Mabuchi, he would let judgment be passed onto those unworthy of a bullet.

With Skull Face dead and Mother Base in shambles, the last of his legacy crumbled when, just mere days after he received the diamond-pressed remains of Amber Fox implanted in the wrist of his bionic arm, Spicy Cockatiel knocked furiously at his quarters. The fiery-haired recruit had been startled by something fierce, only able to say ‘outside!’ The Mercenary rushed out of his quarters, only to be on the receiving end of an atomic flash of light. Sundering metal, rippling waves, and the world had quite literally fallen out from under him. Yet he was not plunged into the icy depths. He’d arrived at the shoreline of that colorful town, with no memory of what had happened before. It was as if he'd lived two lives within one body. He was Big Boss, and he was.. Someone else. Someone he didn’t know, and made no effort to know. He was himself. Now? …Now he wasn’t sure again. His legacy was ruined. His comrades were killed horribly. His companions had been dissolved into the blinding lumination. It was as if he’d been saved from death, only to be damned to a meaningless existence.

No. No, that wasn’t true. Moebius, the Consul- whatever their motives had been before, now he was certain that there had to be some link to the disaster that had upended his life. Wherever that ended, he was determined to get back home, and get back to his company.

”Okay, great! You remember me now, right Snake?” Cap asked. ”The brawls, Supspace, Galeem… you remember all that stuff now?”

A cough was the only response that Falcon received as Snake’s body spasmed; the man groaning as he pushed himself upright. Galeem.. That had to be the thing that caused the flash. As for brawls and Supspace, Falcon was speaking a foreign language to him at that. He never met the man prior to today, and the Captain had introduced himself before decking him flat on the floor. There was only one time anyone had called him Snake, and that was Revolver Ocelot as he was catching him up to speed. Naked Snake was gone, and Venom Snake had taken his place. A new name for a new era. That’s who he was. Venom Snake. He was Big Boss, but that was reserved for his Diamond Dogs- the people who knew him. Still, it didn’t explain how Falcon knew his codename. The man groaned again, releasing another cough as he glared bitterly at the Captain for a moment, standing to his feet. “Hope you had a damn good reason for doing that, Falcon. You -khe- could’ve just told me there was another Snake.”

”What do you mean, ‘another Snake’?” Falcon inquired, genuinely confused now. ”There’s only one Solid Snake, and that’s you...” He said while pointing a gloved finger at Venom Snake, ”...Right?” All of a sudden Cap was feeling like he may have made a big mistake. He was so sure that this guy was the same Solid Snake that he knew. But even after being de-storied, this Snake was still acting like Cap was a complete stranger. ”I don’t get it. You have his hair, his beard. You’re carrying similar weapons, your voice is even the same! Solid Snake was with us when we went into Subspace, and was there when Galeem first showed up! That’s why I was so keen to get you on board and recruit you! How could you not be Solid Snake?”

Well, shit…

“Solid..?” Venom echoed, his tone indicating he still had no memory of this ‘other’ Snake. Perhaps he’d have to differentiate himself after all. “Alright, so there’s a Solid Snake..” Venom mused. “I was given the name Venom Snake by my friend Revolver Ocelot after being caught up when I came out of a coma, but.. I guess it never caught on. Diamond Dogs personnel addressed me as Boss- it was a title I gained after I had to, well, kill my mentor unwillingly. Big Boss, specifically. That clarify things?” Snake asked. Truthfully, he wasn’t expecting anything he said to Falcon to make any sense. Reflecting on it made his shoulders shake with a slight laugh; this situation was getting ridiculous. He composed himself with a sigh. ”Galeem- if that’s the thing that brought all of us here, is responsible for our predicament. I have no idea how it showed up, or why I’m here. We’ve never met before now, Captain. If I’m that similar to this Solid Snake you’re talking about, I’d be intrigued to meet him.”

”Not really, no.” Cap said in regards to any of this being clarified. ”But I obviously got the wrong man. I just don’t get it…” Falcon stared at Venom Snake as if scrutinizing his every detail. ”I swear it’s like I’m looking right at him.” But then Cap shook it off. What’s done was done, there was no going back now. And it sounded like Venom was also pretty clueless on what Galeem’s deal was as well. For that, at least, they were both on the same page. ”Honestly? None of us can say for certain how Galeem showed up, or why. Or even what Galeem really is, for that matter. I’ve heard some of the others refer to it as some kind of God or false God, but… that’s all just speculation on their part. All we know is that Galeem created this world somehow, and from what we understand, the Consuls - Moebius, are tied to it somehow. They have these monsters throughout the world, big special ones they call ‘Guardians’. Killing those Guardians weakens Galeem’s hold on the world, and has the additional effect of releasing some kind of pulse that can undo Galeem’s influence on people like I did for you, only these pulses do it en masse for the surrounding area the Guardian was in when it was killed.”

”Hmh.” Venom Snake grumbled, pressing past the Captain’s speculation- that would be another issue for another time. “Sounds like this thing just wanted to make us its toys. If the Guardians and Consuls act like tethers to Galeem’s hold, wouldn’t killing one attract its attention? Has your organization killed any so far? Snake inquired. He knew it was impossible to go his own way without first learning of the broader situation at large- and what its consequences would bring if this task force had taken direct action previously. His ability to command was all but lost, and gathering intel to help assist this group was all he could do until they were summoned again.

”A handful of Guardians are dead, yes.” Cap answered, then added. ”And at least two Consuls are dead as well. Possibly a third, but that one is not confirmed.” He thought about it some more and figured it was pertinent to further explain, ”There’s one Consul for every letter in the Alphabet I believe. So if only two of those 26 are confirmed dead, that may be why Galeem hasn’t yet paid direct attention to us. Although the Consuls themselves have begun trying to crack down on us, hence why my group was laying low in Mafia Town. As well as a couple other groups of us laying low in other locations too.” Then he yawned and gave a stretch of his arms, ”Come to think of it, you don’t have a room yet, do you? Guess we’d better head up to the Living Quarters and find you one.”

The Mercenary bobbed his head in understanding. The Consuls, the Guardians- each was a direct link to Galeem itself, and it would be nothing short of a full campaign to ensure they were all neutralized. He couldn’t even begin to comprehend the scale of things, and as they were currently, this task force was but a drop in a vast ocean of worlds, environments, beings, and whoever and whatever else resided in this bizarre conglomeration. A noble undertaking to be sure, yet it was one that Snake obliged to support. Otherwise, he reasoned, there was nothing to go back to.

With his questions satisfied for the time being, the man took in a deep breath as the evening’s events began to translate into fatigued muscles and aching joints. Fighting the urge to yawn himself, Snake nodded to the Captain’s question; answering with a gesture of his head toward the exit. “Lead the way. And… thanks, for earlier.”

After learning that the crew of the Avenger was going to be doing the rounds and collecting Seekers from all over the world, the Ace Cadet had wanted to be there to greet them. He was grateful that Band and Red ended up in Edinburgh Magicapolis with him so that even the cold, clouds, and magic couldn’t make the experience miserable, but after two weeks apart - which honestly felt a whole lot longer - it was going to be great to reunite with the whole crew again. Especially a certain fighting feral.

However, the hunter had underestimated how tiring a process onboarding would be, particularly since it immediately followed the emotions of the night before. He’d arrived at the Avenger as a big jumble of satisfaction at their victory over L, anticipation at rejoining the bulk of the Seekers, as well as disappointment and stress that they’d had to leave Linkle behind. After being picked up by the shuttle, they’d directed the craft to swing by the Aether Resort for Linkle, Albedo, and Lucia, but instead found the area under lockdown with none of their allies in sight. It was definitely bittersweet parting with them without even a goodbye, but Mewtwo had stayed behind - hopefully it could locate them and fill them in on everything. And if it came down to it, now that the Cadet’s scoutbugs had the Skullgirl’s scent, he would be able to track her down again.

Which then came the next morning, which saw him packing an overwhelming amount of information into his head. He got a low down on the Seekers’ campaign and their own victories over two more Guardians, the status of their next move which would be in more detail tomorrow, and in turn filled in the relevant parties about what they’d learned in the Frozen Highlands. There was also the bad news, which included being informed of their missing members. Plus the whole Lost Numbers thing and the fact that everyone besides them was living in some kind of soul-loop, which was a mindfuck to say the least, but also put some of the things that Linkle had said into perspective.

And then there was the Avenger itself. A technological marvel that Ace hadn’t had the chance to properly appreciate when he’d first arrived, and one he’d have to acclimate to. Luckily he was pretty good at that, so after an intense and informational morning he’d spent a majority of the rest of the day scouring the entire ship. It was the definition of radalos, equipped with pretty much everything a team could need. He’d spent more time than strictly necessary in the cargo bay, the armory and the stockpile, but otherwise he went to and fro everywhere and tried to familiarize himself with where things were as much as possible. He stopped to talk to strangers too, of which almost everyone aboard was, getting a feel for the general atmosphere around the ship as well.

So it was that by the time night had rolled around and they still had yet to pick up the first contingent of wayward Seekers, the Ace Cadet was already beat. He figured he’d kill some time with a book in his new quarters (of which he’d been told would eventually be shared with another person, no issues there), and ended up… dozing off, snoring loudly.

The turbulence over Skyworld jostled him into waking. He sat up, blinked, and realized that with the hour being so late that he’d probably missed everyone. No doubt they’d be tired and eager to hit the hay after getting back.

Ah, dalamadamn it. Oh well, I guess it’ll make a nice morning surprise then, he thought, flopping back down with his hands linked behind his head.

Not everyone could wait that long, though. As Ace reposed in his bunk, his mind wandering far afield as he waited to nod off again, a muted murmur of voices filtered in from the hallway into his room. Minor ambient disturbances, such as the turbulence he experienced earlier, simply came with the territory of a confined living space, and though the hunter had yet to acclimate the sounds soon subsided. Only to return in force the next moment when a rapping of knuckles against his door, sharp and urgent, jolted him into wakefulness. Before he could get up and answer the door, however, his visitor tried the handle, leading both parties to discover that Ace, in his weariness, had not locked the door.

It got thrown open the next moment, slid sideways into its crevice until it came to a stop in its receptacle with a whack loud enough that anyone in the neighboring rooms could definitely hear it. Having not spent a night here so far, Nadia didn’t expect it to do that, so the sudden noise made her jump in momentary panic just as her words were about to burst forth. “Bwah!?” All her dramatic preamble had been forgotten in an instant–evidently her drink in Stolen Moments hadn’t taken the edge off as much as she hoped. Still, such an overeager bumble was everything Ace needed to know exactly who he was looking at. Sure, she’d found a flashy new outfit (though she’d ditched her jacket in her own room on the way over) and filled out a bit more, with subtle differences in both her face and her voice, but despite the colorful calico highlights and LCD peepers, this hispanic catgirl was absolutely the same Ms Fortune he knew and loved. She looked around the darkened chamber. “Ace!?”

She found him just as she’d left him - a tanned man with a mop of fluffy scarlet hair, accented with a yellow tuft at the front, and warm eyes of gold and chocolate. He was stripped of his armor and rigging, instead sporting a pair of sweatpants and a silly pullover. The moment she laid eyes on him, ugly sweater and all, her face lit up with joy, a wide smile plastered across it. Any planned attempts to seem mad at him evaporated along with her doubts and fears. While logically speaking she had no reason to doubt Band’s word, the two had been separated in an impossibly unpredictable and dangerous world, so Nadia couldn’t have been sure until right this moment. Now that she could see Ace alive and well, however, nothing could stop her smiling ear to ear. Without another word, the feral charged. Where she wrapped herself around Ace in a suffocating hug was for him to decide, if his reaction speed was up to snuff.

She caught him around the shoulders as he scrambled out of bed, the movement sliding her arms up to circle his neck while he returned the embrace just as tightly, his own arms enveloped around her back.

"Nadia!" She was impossible to mistake. Ace had been really looking forward to seeing her again, and now that he finally was, the reunion was hitting him a lot harder than he'd thought. It hadn't been that long, but absence really did make the heart grow fonder, he guessed. He couldn't believe that just a few minutes ago he was ready to leave this for tomorrow morning.

Though reluctant to let go, the hunter did want to actually see more of her than just the fluff of her hair and the cute curl of her tail. He gave her a squeeze and then released her, though his hands hovered nearby while he took in all the changes.

"It's kinda hitting me all at once how much I missed mew," he said, speaking his feelings aloud and completely unable to keep a smile off of his face even if he tried - which might have contributed to the slight tripping over his words. "I'm so glad you're alright! I mean, are you alright? You look great."

“Yeah, thanks!” She beamed at the compliment, her decision to fuse validated. “Check meowt!” Though Ace let her go rather quickly, it had taken a moment longer for the feral to exhume her face from the hunter’s chest, and even after Nadia pulled back a little, her hands did not stray far. Instead she grabbed his and pulled the both of them into an excited whirl, their arms outstretched toward one another so both could get a good look. It seemed like the catgirl was just as physical -and just as forward- as ever. “I’ve been fine! For the most part, anyway. I’ve been stuck in purr-gatory, y’see, just waitin’ to find out if I’d ever see you again! I was worried sick. But it looks like you’re still in one piece, eh?” Despite his misadventures, the man seemed fine. Her friend hadn’t changed since they campaigned in the Deep Blue Seaside together, and even then Ace’s only departure from his original self had been his fusion with Jamaica, which made him a touch smaller and prettier overall. The last time they’d really hung out was at Heaven’s Edge, and Nadia would be lying if she said those scenes hadn’t been replaying in her mind now and again. “Glad you haven’t fur-gotten me!”

He laughed. Man, the sound of her voice was so good right then. "How could anyone pawsibly forget you?"

After a few seconds the initial rush wore off, and Nadia calmed down enough to relinquish her hold on Ace. Her face was a little flushed–despite her general self-confidence, Nadia could never be sure if her advances were appropriate or not, and she didn’t want to risk scaring Ace away. That smile on his face, though, sure made her heart soar. Her tail continued to flick excitedly behind her as she crossed her arms beneath her chest. “So, you wound up in some ice-cold northern city, did you? Really puts the ‘brr’ in Edin-brr-uh, I guess. What the hell happened?”

Ace didn't even question how she knew that, figuring she must have run into Red or Band. It was probably how she'd found out he was back in the first place. He hardly wanted to talk about himself right now, he wanted to talk about her - what she'd been up to, how she'd been, and the like, but she had to be feeling the same way about him, or else she wouldn't have asked.

The Cadet took her hand again, guiding her closer and inviting her to sit on the bed while he stood and regaled her with what he'd been up to in the time they'd been apart, gesturing included. She allowed herself to be thusly guided, though she looked a little disappointed that Ace didn’t sit with her.

"Brr is right - the whole place was fur-eezing! So we're left out in the cold, pretty much stranded after we got chased out of the metro. Apparently this Consul guy, N, had run of the place so we couldn't have gone back even if we wanted to. And worse than the cold was, the entire city ran on magic of all things. So we had to conjure up some money, a place to stay, and as much information as possible, right? And at the same time we were wanted men not just in the metro, but in Edinburgh too! So we're scoping the place out, looking for leads, and we end up working at this animal show. Spheals - fuzzy little round things, snow cute. Wish you could've seen one... but there, we meet this girl named Frisk who introduces us to her friend and shows us where they're staying - which turns out to be this gargwawesome place that was like a little chunk out of my world. We're probably gonna have to go back to those frozen highlands eventually; you've gotta let me take you there."

Would Nadia like the rustic feel of the place? Would she get a kick out of the felyne staff? Would she enjoy the food and the glimpse into his home world? Imagining just the two of them in Grammeowster's warm, cozy cantina sure was a nice thought. Realizing that he was getting a little off track, the hunter went on.

"So it turns out, Frisk and Albedo end up knowing Linkle. She was there in the city! But she was in a bad way. She was... I mean, you probably know, right?" Nadia had been the one to originally explain to him a little about what had happened to Linkle, so she must have had some inkling into what her curse was. "But don't worry, she's okay.”

Nadia breathed out. She’d heard as much from Band, hard as it was to believe. If Linkle was putting up a good fight against the Skull Heart, that was good to hear, but could she really hold out against a being of such terrifying corruptive power?

"We ended up meeting with her after we fought with N. While we were there, we heard about what happened to Alcamoth. The Consuls spun it like they were the heroes, there was a whole welcome back rally for them and everything. Left a real bad taste in my mouth, you know? It was around then that Mewtwo showed up out of nowhere. He was one of the survivors. So, after that..."

His story gradually veered out of an upbeat retelling to a more subdued one as he went over the low points. As he went on, he keenly left out the part where he'd been a hair's breadth away from death at the hands of Consul N, and the beating he took versus the Darkbeast Paarl. It was nice to know that Nadia had worried over him, it showed that she cared about him, but at the same time he didn't actually want to cause her any worry. Thankfully, the story ended on somewhat of a high note, so he was back to eagerly telling Nadia everything in no time.

"Once the whole team was together, we cooked up a plan to force Consul L to tell us how to ice the Guardian in that area. I'm waiting at the top of his huge tower that's already on top of the biggest bumblepumpkin ever for half of our team to force L to retreat to our ambush point. And when she gets there, well - we won." He paused only to flash her his best heroic grin.

The news definitely impressed Nadia. “Wow, no kitten?”

"Mhm! She ends up telling us this plant called mistletoe is the only thing we need to beat the Guardian. And then suddenly this flying ship comes over with Wonder Red's commander in it. We get scooped up and now we're here! And the best part of the story is it ended with getting to see you again."

Ace was practically breathless after fitting as much information into as short a speaking time as possible, and his face had grown pink after the cheesy line he threw in at the end. Still, he had one more thing to say at the moment. He sat down on the opposite bunk facing Nadia. "Honestly, it feels like we got our Lunasstras kicked just as often as we did the kicking, but enough about all that! What happened with you? When we got here we got filled in on a lot of stuff, but no real details. You beat another Guardian underground, right?"

The unexpected sappy ending to Ace’s tale made Nadia grin like a giddy schoolgirl. What a total dipstick. Between cops, Consuls, and undead nightmares, it sounded like Ace had been through hell and back, and still he found it in himself to make jokes like that. The two of them really were birds of a feather. Now that he’d told his story, it was time to repay the favor, though she didn’t plan to go to such detail. Between her tiredness and her spaciness she’d zoned out a couple times during Ace’s tale -listening more to his delightful excitement than to every last word- so she’d need to get a move on before her story became a snorey.

“That’s right,” Nadia began. “The Underground was huge. We arrived in this quarry aboveground with a huge pit in it, and the meowment we went to ride the lift down, bam, a Consul showed up. F. He dropped our lift, and after falling for like, a minute straight, we plopped down in this magic flowerbed. Monsters came at us right away, and things only got crazier from there. There was this poop-filled dung-geon full of gross critters and weird upgrades. That ended with a fight on a river raft inside some giant monster’s bloody guts, against this giant fetus thing…talk about a womb with a view! We had to take it out, but it was super nasty, so it’s hard to feel sorry abort that.” She giggled evilly. Ace was glad she seemed not to have minded it enough to joke about it, because if anything the one upside of not ending up in the Under where he'd originally planned to go spared him from going through all that.

“Anyway, we wound up in a huge city of monster people called the Home of Tears, where it was always raining. I know rain sounds crazy underground, but I’m not deluge-ional! It was nice, except for the Consul ruling it: P, or as I liked to call him, P-brain. I say ‘liked’ because we washed that little bitch like dirty laundry. Even though he had freaky time powers. Sadly we couldn’t stick around and celebrate, ‘cause F invited himself over again and turned everyone in town against us. We escaped through this cavern full of cheese, and that basically began a big, multi-day trek through every kind of cave you can imagine. There was a pizza tower, an abandoned mall, a giant beehive, and this tomb where we got our souls stolen and had to dance to get ‘em back. And lemme tell ya, after a couple lessons from Primrose, those skeletons were dyin’ to see me on the dancefloor! Then…” She made a face as she remembered the creepy underground prison of dreams and nightmares. “We fought this freaky horse…we kicked his ass, but quittin’ just wasn’t in his neigh-ture, so we had to do it all over again in a dream. And I’m pretty sure we fought the Guardian in a dream the next morning, too. But the spirit Toni got was plenty real, so…mission accomplished!”

The feral shrugged. “We needed a break after all that, so we headed back to the train station and went for a ride ‘round the eastern coast. We ‘shore’ had a good time, too! First Gerudo Town, then Carnival Town. Good food, good games, and good company.” She scrunched up her face. “With one exception. We ran into my old rival Juri. She’s a total bitch, so steer clear. I’m over it now though, so don’t worry.” Nadia smiled at Ace. “Wish you’d been there. We did mountain climbing, taxi driving, hide and seek, exploring a haunted factory…I got partnered up with that Therion guy, and he’s a cool dude, but kind of a wet blanket. I like a guy with a sense of humor, so if you see any, lemme know.” She winked at Ace.

He grinned back at her. "I might have one in mind."

“Oh, and after the games we used our tokens on this machine that gave us a TON of spirits. That’s pretty much how I wound up like this.” Nadia performed a dashing pose, her hands on her hips with her head jauntily turned away. “The extras…well, they’re probably gone by now, but you should still check out the Spirit Chamber sometime. Gettin’ stronger and lookin’ good doin’ it is easier than ever!”

"Groovios. Purr-sonally I don't think you've ever had a hard time looking good, though," he casually flirted. Nadia replied with a double snap into double finger guns, smiling as if to say aah, good one.

The Spirit Chamber... Ace had poked his head in, as he had every other non-restricted area on board, but found the vibe in there pretty weird. The room looked high-tech, but had a mystical feel to it as well that had prevented him from spending much time in there. Since his one and only fusion he hadn't really thought about doing it again - he was an equipment sort of guy, so the majority of the time he just squished spirits for items. Maybe in the future he'd give the chamber another look, if he came across anything interesting.

At the moment though, he was still more interested in the woman in front of him. He sat on the edge of the bunk with his hands on either side of him, leaned forward as if that would better help him absorb everything Nadia had said and would say. He'd probably ask her more details about some of the things he'd heard later; he could tell her energy was starting to flag. Her sudden appearance had repelled a lot of his own weariness from the day, but his had been more mentally exhausting than anything.

"Sounds fun - the end of it I mean. The rest of the story was Kut-kurazy," he chuckled. He definitely would have appreciated getting some time to just relax and goof around with everyone. "So after all that you guys all split up again?"

The catgirl nodded. “Uh-huh. Both teams faced off against two Consuls apiece, and it sounds like another one -Z- found and attacked the city team right after. So the guys in charge figured we’d poked the tiger a little too hard and better lay low for a while. Plus, the techies needed time to figure out some problem with the Dead Zone so we can go after the Guardian. I never, uh, really learned the details. Guess we’ll find out tomorrow.” At that moment, Nadia failed to suppress a huge yawn. “Uuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaah…ah, man. Guess the day’s cat-chin’ up to me. I did spend most of it diving.” She smiled at Ace as she stood. “I’ll tell ya about Mafia Town some other time. Maybe even take ya there, if we get the chance. After chillin’ in Edinburgh for half a month, I betcha could use another beach day or two.” Nadia lingered a moment within arm’s reach, as if she didn’t want to leave just yet–or she had something else she wanted to do before leaving, but couldn’t quite work up the nerve to do it herself.

"Or three or four," he agreed. Naturally her suggestion brought to mind the last day at the beach they'd spent together, which was a warm and welcome memory. A few more like that would be really nice.

When Nadia stood up, Ace did too, but since she lingered neither of them moved for a few moments. The Cadet felt a little guilty - he wanted to talk with her more, and honestly keep her to himself a little longer, but she was clearly bushed. He thought about asking her to stay over the night. The extra bunk in the room was unclaimed as of then, though most likely wouldn't be after tomorrow. Would that be weird? She might get the wrong idea, he thought. The man wasn't exactly known for being eloquent, so he'd probably phrase the offer poorly. Despite how courageous and open Ms. Fortune could come off as, he knew she still played a few cards close to her chest, and he didn't want to accidentally upset her. He discarded the idea, and after realizing that the whole time he'd been thinking about it he'd been studying her face he blinked, letting out an awkward puff of a laugh.

Thankfully another plan to spend even a little more time with her came to mind. He reached out slightly, bumping his fingers against hers as an offering. "Let me walk you to your room?"

Her fingers snuck between his in an instant. Nadia did not seem to begrudge the extra moment or two of what she saw as admiration. “Don’t know what I’d do without you~”

When the two of them entered the hallway, it was silent. There wasn't a soul around besides the two of them, though that wasn't exactly surprising. Ace had no idea what the actual time was, but it was pretty late by now, he knew that much. Outside of the private quarters they found the corridor to be a little chillier, giving both of them the unneeded excuse to press close and brush their shoulders together as they walked while their hands stayed joined between them. Their pace was way slower than it ought to have been, but considering all of the Seekers' dorms were in the same general area it still wasn't a long trek.

Ace had intended to chat a little more, but given the quiet they'd stepped out into the pair ended up keeping quiet too - but it was a comfortable quiet, just enjoying each other's presence lest they break the atmosphere. At least, until, they came to Nadia's door.

Still reluctant to part, the Ace Cadet shifted where he stood. He glanced from the offending door that signaled the end of the night to the feral. He looked like he wanted to say something but didn't, and though he reached up with his free hand as if he were going to touch Nadia's face, he aborted and instead swapped to sheepishly rubbing the back of his own neck. "Eheh..."

When he looked at her he found the same old hesitation bubble up in him again. The track record of his love life was pretty bad, and so far he and Nadia had a good thing going. They worked well together, liked joking around together, and had an easy camaraderie built over only a few days that their separation hadn't put a damper on. Clearly neither of them minded some skinship, and the flirtatious air to their back and forth was fun. In the grand scheme of things they really hadn't known each other that long, and he didn't want to potentially wreck a still-budding friendship, let alone a relationship... but the simple fact of the matter was that he liked Nadia. A lot. And whatever it was they had couldn't be that fragile.

As he was sometimes wont to do, Ace pushed the smarter, more logical thoughts to the back of his head. He dropped his arm back down to his side, and with his other hand still in Nadia's he gave her a light squeeze.

"Thanks for coming to see me. You were a real sight for sore eyes," he said quietly, mindful not to disturb anyone already sleeping in the rooms nearby. He gave her a small grin, though his smile grew more tender as he held her gaze. Then he leaned in towards her a little closer, and spoke a little softer. "Nadia... would you mind if I kissed you?"

During the all-too-short stroll over here, Nadia’s heart kept fluttering, even though nothing had happened yet. But neither she nor Ace needed to say anything to know that something was there–they could feel it between them. And yet, for once in her life, the feral remained tongue-tied. Until the two of them paused at the threshold to Nadia’s room. She turned toward her companion, a helpless, weirdly bashful grin on her face. Despite her fatigue, her whole body seemed to tingle with nervous energy. As fond as she’d grown of the Cadet, and as much as it seemed like he liked her too, doubts left her paralyzed. Doubts about herself, and what was appropriate. Her heart kept pounding, and her tail kept flicking, until Ace offered a heart-stopping smile and a very important question.

WHAM!

Barely had the words left the hunter’s mouth before Nadia pounced on him, pushing him against the corridor wall with her chest pressed against his. Her lips met his with surprising ferocity, and as the catgirl’s arms encircled Ace’s waist, eyes squeezed shut, her tail wound around his leg.

Nadia had always been forward with him, which was part of the reason he'd had the courage to ask in the first place. That outgoing nature was part of her charm. Still, he hadn't expected to find his back hitting the wall and her mouth on his quite so suddenly. Even if it took his brain a moment to catch up to the surprise, his body had no such issues. His hands came up to cup either side of Nadia's face, holding her close and steadying the both of them as he tilted his head slightly so that the pair better slot together.

If Ace thought that Nadia's mere appearance had re-energized him, then the kiss practically electrified him. One of his hands moved to curl around the back of Nadia's neck, the other slipping down over her shoulder and coming to rest above her hip. His hold was loose, partly because it felt like he was hyper aware of everywhere they touched anyway, but mostly so that Nadia could pull away any time she wanted to. With his strength he could easily have pushed away from the wall, reversed their positions, and kept her as long as he dared - but he was more than happy to let Nadia make that decision. If it was left up to him, he might let this go on forever.

When they did come up for air there was a dopey smile on Ace's face, the widest one he'd worn in a while. Naturally, he couldn't resist the chance for a dumb joke.

"So I guess you don't mind?"

By the time Nadia leaned back, she was practically gasping for breath. Her heart pounded in her chest, propelled into overdrive by a cocktail of raw emotion, and her eyes were wide as if she'd just awoken from a trance. Evidently both her brain cells had been fried in the heat of the moment, and only just now the feral's higher faculties rebooting. She didn't know what primal instincts came over her, but honestly? She didn't regret it. Right now, she felt happy. Maybe happier than she'd ever been. For a precious moment, all her pains and fears had melted away. She'd forgotten the scars, the losses, the hunger, and the charades. In that sublime handful of seconds, there had been nothing in the world but the two of them.

If only it could last forever.

As she rebooted, becoming aware of what she'd done and the noise she made doing it, Nadia's cheeks flushed red. But just like Ace, she couldn't wipe the idiotic smile off her face if she tried. "Well, I'm purr-etty sure I'm the one who kissed you, but it could go either way, honestly." Her hands had yet to leave his solid oblique muscles and her tail remained coiled as she dared to think about another go despite the possible disturbance. Before she could make up her mind, however, the decision was made for her. With a sliding sound the door behind her came open, revealing a puzzled-looking Blazermate. Of course the medabot would still be up at this hour, and more than willing to cheekily poke her faceplate into someone else's affairs. Though some part of Nadia panicked, urging her to disentangle herself from Ace and pretend everything was normal, the cat burglar didn't budge. Right now she still felt the rush of victory, filling her with joy and pride. So what if Blazermate saw? Still, all good things had to come to an end. This was enough for now--more than she could have hoped for, in fact. Nadia raised her eyebrows at Blazermate as if to say what of it?, then turned to wink at Ace before letting him go.

"See you 'round~"

"Yeah," he replied as she slipped away from his hands. He raised one of them in a little wave, and gave Blazermate an awkward sort of nod. He hoped they hadn't offended her or anything, but honestly it seemed like she had whatever the opposite of delicate sensibilities was. "Good night."

When the door to their room slide shut once more, leaving Ace alone in the hall, he just stood there for a few moments. He still felt kind of tingly all over, with a phantom touch left where Nadia's arms and tail had been wrapped around him. When he finally moved he turned and walked swiftly back the way he came, not really wanting to be spotted randomly standing alone in the hallway smiling like some kind of Kecha-wacko. His skin was still thrumming lightly even after he was back in his own room, and his mind flushed with elation... which actually presented a small problem. How am I supposed to get back to sleep now?

When Absalom fell and Palutena's forces sang out in celebration, Pit was quick to join them. He let out several loud cheers before alighting next to the bulk of the Seekers, and then a few more after that too. Once the soft glow of Lady Palutena's power was shed from his wings, he flicked them out a couple of times to get the last remaining tension out of them before tucking them in close against his back.

The heavenly host was already beginning to depart, and the Seekers were swiftly preparing to return to their mobile base of operations. It felt like things were going a little too quickly to Pit. They'd only just defeated the Corruption and freed Skyworld from its danger - did they really have to leave so soon? Couldn't they at least celebrate for a night back at the temple? Pit knew that being here was always a temporary thing, and that as soon as a way to get through the Dead Zone's timefall was figured out the Seekers would be called back into action, but... it had only been a week! A week spent fighting practically the whole time. He didn't want to leave yet. When Uriel approached to ask if they were really going, Pit even started to deny it - but there was a resounding variety of affirmative answers that cemented the decision. Even Edelgard and Edward were planning to take off and board the airship.

After a moment of waffling, Pit decided that he wasn't going to go with them. At least, not at the moment.

"Um, actually... someone else can take my fulton," he started, crossing his arms over his chest like he'd have to defend his choice. "I'll meet up with you guys later. Somehow. I don't... I can't just leave Lady Palutena now."

He glanced at Uriel, and at the Centurion Strongarms that had been part of his unit waiting in the wings to give their captain a ride. Those big guys seemed glad that they weren't losing their commander like some other squads were losing theirs, which kind of validated his choice for him.

Pit nodded at the Centurions, then turned back to the Seekers. Even if he wanted to keep fighting alongside them, he definitely couldn't leave without at least speaking to Lady Palutena about it. So he gave another nod, this one shorter and more for himself. As Uriel departed and his squad came to collect him, Pit offered the Seekers a wide grin.

"I know Uriel already said 'on behalf of all Skyworld,' but... thanks, guys. Thank you for helping us protecting our home!"

He turned and left after that, clasping arms with the Centurions so that they could hoist him up and fly him back to Palutena's Temple.

---

The atmosphere on Skyworld's main islands was definitely more jovial than somber after the battle was over. Grief might come tomorrow, but tonight there was an overwhelming feeling of pride and relief. The guard that had remained behind greeted their returning brethren with gusto, and their returning commanders with cheers and applause. It was a proper hero's welcome back. The plaudits followed the captains as they entered Palutena's Temple, where the celebratory mood was more reverent. Palutena herself lauded them as well, and after putting the brief in debrief she bid them to do as she'd suggested earlier: be proud, return home, and sleep soundly.

Pit accepted all of the praise that was thrown his way, eventually coming to stand by Palutena's side while she dealt with the last remaining loose ends of the day. When finally the goddess too was free to relax, she let out a deep breath.

"You can leave the room to us," she told her tiny cherub assistant, who nodded and flitted away, closing the door to the viewing room as he exited. With just herself and Pit left in there now, Palutena could let her hair down, metaphorically speaking. Standing in for an unknown god for all of the various angels of her new host kept her on her toes, and she found herself sticking to being professional about it, for lack of a better word.

Pit too pretty much dropped all pretense, letting out a yawn. It had been a long day, and the bureaucratic stuff right at the end as he waited for Palutena was pretty boring. He stretched his arms out over his head until there was a satisfying crack, easily shaking out any tiredness, then he turned to the goddess.

"Well we did it! Train derailed, corruption cleaned up, and fake angels felled. Pretty good, right?"

"Pretty good indeed," Palutena laughed lightly. "I didn't doubt any of you for a moment."

"Heheh, I know you didn't." He'd been beaming at her, but his smile gradually shrank as he considered Skyworld's next steps. "So what are we gonna do now?"

"I'll have to decide what to do about everyone that's still gleaming," she said. Freeing them all at once wasn't possible, and even if it was, she had no idea how that would affect the state of Skyworld. A mass defection was possible once the non-native members of her army knew the truth, which would leave the defense of the temple and possible Skyworld as a whole in shambles. Then again, doing nothing would allow a Consul to assume control of any of them - or so Palutena had been told. Deciding who, how, and when was going to be something she'd have to think long and hard about. "And figure out a way to deal with the Flame Clock."

Pit nodded. "I think we'll need some kind of new defense system too. It would be great if you could use some kind of cloaking power on the whole area."

It sure would, Palutena thought. She could most likely use her Power of Transparency on her temple's island, and maybe the entirety of Skyworld if she really tried, but that was in no way sustainable. Plus it wouldn't do much to stop any invaders from sensing the area, nor landing on it. So until she could determine a way to stop anyone from being able to wreak havoc here, improved defenses were just going to be another thing on the to-do list.

"What about you?" She asked, changing the topic slightly. When the only reply she got out of Pit was a confused "huh?", she said, "What's next for the Seekers?"

"Finally destroying whatever Guardian is still in the Dead Zone, I think."

"I see. I'm surprised you didn't go back with them."

Pit blinked, evidently surprised that she was surprised. "I wanted to talk to you before I left! You know, say goodbye, to Uriel and Celia and everyone too. And see if you needed anything else. And make sure Skyworld's gonna be okay if I leave."

Palutena rested her hands on her hips, amusement showing on her face. "Pit, you could have done most of that without coming all the way here. I can talk to you telepathically, remember?"

"I know! I just... wasn't sure if it would still work outside of Skyworld. It didn't before."

"It will," Palutena promised. "Now that my mind's crystal clear again, I can be in yours 24/7 - so I hope you enjoyed the break while it lasted."

"I'd rather hear you all the time than not all, Lady Palutena!" Pit said, which was the honest truth. It had been pretty hard not being able to fall back on her during some of his rough moments. If their connection was re-established for real now, it would be such a weight off of his shoulders. It went both ways too - if something happened in Skyworld and she needed him back, he'd be able to know right away.

"So if you can reach me wherever I go now, does that mean you can keep using the Power of Flight on me?" he asked, eyes big and hopeful. Unfortunately, the answer wasn't exactly what he'd wanted.

"I'm not so sure. Strictly speaking, the distance between us shouldn't matter... but in this world, it might end up being a problem. There are a lot of different overlapping rules of reality to worry about now. Not to mention I can sense a lot more gods out there, and you know how touchy gods can be if another deity pokes their head into their territory."

The young angel's shoulders and wings drooped. "Oh. So if I leave Skyworld and go back to the Seekers, it'll be impossible to fly again...?"

Palutena raised a brow at the word if. He'd been using a lot of ifs. Had Pit considered possibly staying in Skyworld instead? Although she would love to keep having him around, Pit could probably do more good out there on the front lines in the war against Galeem. She smiled at Pit, which was already enough to raise his spirits.

"I didn't say impossible, Pit. I just need some time to figure out this divine tangle. I wonder where I could find a good multi-dimensional paralegal..." The goddess tapped a finger to her cheek, head tipped in thought, before something else quickly occurred to her. "In the mean time, why don't you borrow someone else's wings?"

Since Palutena had been freed, the Seekers had filled her in on a lot of the general condition of the world, with Pit happily filling in the rest so that his goddess was completely up to speed. So she knew about the power of spirits, and had given a general suggestion to her army to collect the spirits of fallen comrades if it was safe to do so. Given that an unfortunate amount of her army had fallen that day against the Corruption, there were several of them in the temple as Palutena decided what to do with them. Giving some to her guard captain would be a good use. Pit quickly caught on to her meaning.

"I was meaning to ask you about that. Do you think it's... kinda weird?"

"How so?"

"I mean isn't it kind of similar to how the Underworld Army does things? Using people's souls and stuff."

Palutena chuckled. "And you're worrying about that after you've already done it?"

"I was worrying about it before that too! And these were from, like, a vending machine or something anyway so..." Pit retorted, grasping at the front of his fusion-changed outfit.

"Uh-huh." She gave him a knowing look. "Well, you're not wrong that it does seem a little like the Underworld Army's process. But Hades turned those souls into monsters - a much worse fate. These ones are going to be used to help rescue the world."

"I guess that makes sense," Pit said after a moment of reflection, scratching his head. "If I got turned into a spirit, I'd rather have someone turn me into a sword and use me to beat up bad guys than fade away..."

"If you're still worried about it, then I'll give you the official Palutena seal of approval for spirit usage." Palutena leaned over, reaching out to flick Pit's forehead. Though the angel rubbed the spot on his head afterwards, he grinned at her too. If the Goddess of Light said it was fine, then it was fine - no need to think about it anymore. In truth, Palutena would normally be against such exploitation of souls... but she could be pragmatic when she needed to be. If it was for the sake of the world, for the greater good, then she knew that sometimes the good guys needed to do whatever it takes to prevail.

"Hm... Lady Palutena, do you think I'd turn into a sword or a bow? Or maybe a staff?"

"Let's hope we won't have to find out."

Palutena turned to go collect a suitable spirit as Pit followed, chatting away.

"You know they have this thing on the ship that let's you pick where you want to change. If I use it on my wings, maybe I really will be able to fly!" The bonus of giving a spirit another way to stay and fight the good fight was nice, but the prospect of potentially being able to fly was what really excited Pit.

"You just need to use the spirit on your wings? I could help you out with that. Here, turn around."

Pit did so, but the look he gave Palutena over his shoulder said he wasn't so sure. "Uh, I don't think it's gonna work like that."

"Who's the goddess here, Pit? Besides, I haven't gotten to see a fusion up close yet. Just hold still..."

"Ow! You pinched my feathers!"

Fwooosh. With one hand holding Pit's wings out away from the rest of his body, Palutena pushed the spirit of a fallen Feathersword into them with the other. A light engulfed Pit, bright enough that even the Goddess of Light almost had to look away. She watched on, curious, as her angelic guinea pig underwent changes right before her eyes.


Following the fusion, Pit immediately wriggled free of Palutena's grasp and spread his wings out wide. He only felt a little different for the first few seconds before everything settled into place. He felt the weight of new armor pieces, and no longer felt the tickle of his hair at the base of his neck, so he could tell that Palutena's plan hadn't actually worked as intended. His wings, though - that was the important part. He knew them better than the back of his own hand, so he could tell that something had changed.

Closing his wings around himself, Pit found that they were definitely longer. They felt sturdier too. He whirled around to face Palutena and exclaimed, "How do they look? Flight-ready?!"

Palutena had been studying the changes too, trying to puzzle out how and why certain aspects changed and others didn't. Of course, she was going to need a lot more data to come to any real conclusions. Though her interest was mostly for scientific curiosity, she did frown slightly when she noted Pit's laurel wreath. The golden leaves were part of her iconography just as much as her halo was, so she wasn't sure how she felt about her symbol marking Pit as part of her host being transformed. She didn't dwell on that for long though, instead shifting her gaze to Pit's wings once more before giving the angel a smile. "Well why don't you try it?"

He didn't need to be told twice. Pit launched himself up into the air, beating his improved wings until he was up as high as the ceiling would let him go. He was a little quicker in the air, and so far he was airborne for a little longer, so for a few moments both angel and goddess thought that the fusion had worked. Then, sustaining himself in the air became too hard. His wings faltered and he started to fall, with no amount of frantic flapping stopping him from dropping back onto the marble floor.

"Nooo, ugh!" Pit lamented. He brought both of his wings around towards his front again, inspecting them in more depth. Having that little bit of hope come crashing down felt like a gut punch. "I really thought..." He trailed off, staring at the crisp white feathers in his hands. Then he sighed and let them go, his wings going to rest at his back. "I guess it wouldn't be that easy, huh?"

Palutena wondered why it wouldn't be. While she remotely viewed the battlefield earlier, she'd seen her once wayward commander Edward Portsmith fuse and become capable of flight, however limited. Was it because he'd absorbed two angels? Pit already had a set of wings, but was their flightless defect so great that just one flight-capable spirit wasn't enough? Or was Pit's physiology as an angel of Angel Land just that different from the angels of Albion? If the latter flew under their own wing power rather than the force of their soul channeled into their feathers, then all fusing with them would do is make Pit's wings more powerful - it wouldn't fix the inherent issue. That was the most likely problem, then. Pit seemed to be coming to the same conclusion, though a bit slower. He glanced at the remaining spirits and considered trying again before shaking his head lightly.

"You'll be alright, Pit. It won't take me long to figure out the long range boons - we'll have you back in the air yet," Palutena offered, at which Pit forced a smile onto his face.

"Yeah, no problem. I've been fighting for longer without the Power of Flight anyway," he said. It would just be back to the more of the same, except this time he'd have Lady Palutena's guiding voice in his head to make things easier. While he was out in the world, he could try and find some other methods of flight too. That was, of course, only if he did return to the ranks of the Seekers of Light.

Pit brought one arm up to self-consciously rub at the other. He did want to help fight against Galeem. It kind of felt irresponsible not to. He was there, on that cliff, when Galeem first appeared. He was one of the first to stand against it. It was an important mission, probably the most important one in the world at the moment, and sometimes the adventure had even been fun. But after being separated from Lady Palutena for so long, he hardly wanted to leave her side now that he was here. Would it be so bad to resume his position as captain of her army and stand guard in Skyworld?

Sensing his hesitation, Palutena laid a gentle hand on Pit's shoulder. He looked up at her to find a reassuring smile aimed at him, and when he smiled back this time it was more genuine. Then Palutena stepped back, summoning her staff to raise it and bring it down against the floor with an echoing thump.

"Are you ready for your next mission, Pit?"

The angel dropped down onto one knee with his right fist pressed against his heart, his head bowed and his wings spread out low. Palutena threw her arm out as she spoke, her voice taking on a commanding tone.

"Go, join the battle to free the people of this planet, and bring this World of Light to an end!"

"Yes, Lady Palutena!"

Pit hopped back up to his feet, Palutena's order having flushed away all of his doubts. To serve her was his calling, and if she decreed that he be there personally to hunt down Guardians, fight off Consuls, and help take down Galeem then he would gladly do it for her.

Easing up slightly, Palutena spoke again. "Now picture someone aboard the Avenger."

A couple of faces flashed through Pit's mind before he realized what she intended.

"Are you going to–"

"Warp you? Yes. Hope you have someone in mind."

"You didn't give me a chance to say goodbye!" Pit complained, though it was without any real bite to it.

"Goodbye for now, Pit," the Goddess of Light said, exchanging a last smile with her angel. She pointed her staff at him, its head beginning to glow a bright, sparkly blue.

"Warp!"

---

There was very little warning at the other end of the warp point that a whole other person was about to pop into existence there. In the end it was Roxas, his friend and roommate's face that Pit had pictured as the divine power took effect. If he was lucky, Roxas would already be in their room and Pit wouldn't even have to do anything else before trying to get to sleep. For the Keyblade wielder, small shimmering blue lights began to form in the open air next to him, quickly growing larger and more frequent until within moments space itself distorted and opened up, dumping the angel out next to him.

Pit landed ungracefully with an oof. It had been a little rougher than usual, maybe because the Avenger was moving? Nevertheless Pit quickly got up and dusted himself off, announcing himself with a pleasant call of, "I'm back!"

Geralt’s tracking had taken him to an extremely dense forest, and he almost instinctively sighed. Of course the monstrous thing had run for the woods. The scent it left was like no other, a combination of different kinds of blood, rot, and manufactured products. The blood was of both man and beast, and the rot was…wrong. Wrong for rot, which was saying a lot in and of itself. Taking another slow breath, Geralt nodded. He was still going the right way. Before entering the woods, he took stock of what he had.

He had applied hybrid oil to his silver sword, though he had no idea if it would have any effect. The descriptions he’d gotten of the creature pointed that way, but there was no real way of knowing. He hadn’t recognized the description, which was frustratingly common nowadays. Still, no point in delaying further.

After a while of traipsing through the forest, the scent trail he was following got much heavier. He was close now. Freeing his silver sword, Geralt kept the blade close by, creeping forward. As the minutes passed by, him creeping ever onward, Geralt started to hear a voice. “I love you.” Was the first thing he made out, and it set him on edge instantly. Mimicry? Could be a cursed one, or a hybrid. Still, it gave him a better idea of exactly where his quarry was. He drew his hand crossbow, his other still holding the sword to the side, and took a spot behind a tree. Steadying his breath, he waited to hear the voice again before striking.

Stepping out from behind the tree, he leveled the crossbow and fired, stowing the ranged weapon before even registering that the bolt struck. The creature was, truly, like nothing Geralt had seen. Five walking limbs, with what looked like a human arm protruding from its head. Its head had multiple mouths and sets of eyes, and he wondered if that back foot could kick as well.

Wasting no time, Geralt cast the Sign of Quen, having refrained earlier to avoid accidentally alerting the creature. It launched forward with a screech, kicking off the ground with all five limbs and charging Geralt with surprising speed. He evaded with a sidestep, his silver sword coming up and across the thing’s side, leaving a slight trail of blood in its flank. In return, the Nothing There slashed at geralt’s midsection with the claw arm on its head, gouging a good portion of Quen’s defenses out. Grunting, Geralt tackled the thing, bashing it in the head with his pommel.

The Nothing There reared back, kicking with its mutilated forelimbs, and lunged forward in an attempt to bite Geralt, only to be kicked aside and stabbed in the flank. Barely reacting to the sword in its body, the creature grabbed Geralt with the claw on its head, drawing him close to its body and biting through what was left of Quen’s shielding, its teeth catching on his armor.

“Damn!” The Witcher cursed, pulling his sword from the Nothing There and backing away to cast Quen again. It seemed the thing had a similar idea, as it curled in on itself and began transforming. Geralt drew close and crashed his pommel into the egg’s shell, but it neither budged nor cracked in the slightest, merely rocked slightly from the impulse. An attempt to slash open the egg was similarly fruitless, and Geralt sighed. Waiting a good twenty or so seconds, Geralt unleashed a concentrated blast of flames from Igni, and that got more of a reaction, with the outer layer of the egg overheating and cracking slightly.

However, it was not enough, and after a few more seconds, the egg cracked open, and a true monster emerged. “Damn, you’re ugly.” Geralt sneered, immediately lunging forward to cut the humanoid monstrosity down, but it brought up its mace-arm with lightning-fast reflexes and batted aside Geralt’s sword, bending over to sink its teeth into the Witcher’s neck while holding him close with its other arm. Quen quickly began to falter, and Geralt used his free hand to quickly draw his hunting knife, plunging it into one of the eyes on the Nothing There’s chest, using the shock of the damage to free himself. “Faster than you look, then…” he muttered, stepping backwards cautiously and pulling free a Grapeshot grenade, tossing it at his foe.

The Nothing There dodged effortlessly, though its back was still peppered with shrapnel when the bomb exploded. This didn’t prompt a response, the creature curiously observing Geralt, who narrowed his eyes in return. Delaying the fight didn’t hurt, as Geralt hadn’t noticed any exceptional regeneration abilities in the creature so far, beyond the metamorphosis. The eye on its chest was still weeping blood, a large gash torn through it by his hunting knife.

“Goodbye.” It suddenly said, and Geralt had only a moment to raise his blade as the monster’s arm transformed into a massive blade, the nothing There surging forward to cleave him in two. The impact between their weapons rattled Geralt’s bones, and before Geralt could recover from the blow, it swiped its clawed hand across Geralt’s face, before its toothy maw found purchase on Geralt’s skull, its massive teeth grinding against the Witcher’s cheekbone. As one side of his vision filled with blood, Geralt’s hand weakly came up to draw the Sign of Aard, telekinetic force blasting the creature off of him, and taking a chunk of flesh with it.

Half-blinded and shaking from blood loss, Geralt raised his silver sword again, grimacing angrily. He wouldn’t die here. He’d survived worse. He just had to find his opportunity to kill this thing, and let Swallow do the hard work. But he couldn’t…take the seconds it would require right now. Not against this thing.

Its arm had returned to its mace-like form, though Geralt noticed that the eye on its chest seemed less damaged than before. So, it could regenerate. Whether that was from consuming his flesh or its own natural healing was irrelevant. Another bite like that would kill him. Taking a more defensive stance, Geralt waited for the Nothing There’s next attack.

It jumped forward a moment later, slamming its mace-hand down in an overhead slam, but Geralt dodge, cutting at the smaller of its arms, the one with the many eyes along it, and earning a splash of blood from it for his efforts. Keeping this thing on his good side was simple enough, as it seemed either unconcerned or unaware that it had made him a much easier target already. Geralt stepped back, watching as the Nothing There mimicked his movement. His remaining eye narrowed, and Geralt lunged forward, catching the eye on its shoulder with a quick slash before stepping back out of the range of a clumsy follow-up with its mace-arm. “Hello.” It garbled to Geralt, who frowned as he watched the thing.

Nonetheless, he was starting to find a rhythm, which was why it was odd when the creature instead kneeled to the ground, holding up one ar- Geralt threw himself to the side as he realized something was wrong, a bolt of bone launching from the Nothing There’s smaller arm a moment later, piercing through where Geralt had just been with enough velocity that it would have broken through his armor. The impact with the ground rattled the Witcher, and as he clumsily forced himself to his feet, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up when he heard the words “I love you.” from behind.

---

It pushed open the door to the tavern, the flesh-thing at the bar waving an arm with its teeth bared. “Hello, Geralt! Managed to get that nasty, didya! Knew ye had it in ya, after all! Hahahahaa!” The man laughed, though it stopped after a few seconds. “Alright, I’ve got your bounty right here, then. Just- hey, what’s gotten into- Geralt, let go, dammit! You’re gonna break my bloody arm!” The flesh-thing writhed in its grasp, before grabbing a knife from behind the bar and stabbing into its arm.

“I love you.”

---

Geralt shot out of his bed, panting, covered in a cold sweat. “Fuck. What…fuck, just on the Avenger…” He sighed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

The defeat of Absalom was celebrated by the angels, although Sectonia didn't share in their celebration the same way. Another horrid ugly creature was removed from the board and the world was more beautiful as a result as it should be. Thus she was more stoic about the whole situation than their angelic allies. "Such a hideous creature..." she said as she looked upon the spirit of the creature. She wouldn't be taking it, but if anyone did and didn't try to make some kind of weapon out of it, she'd have choice words for them.

Their little celebration would be over soon as the Avenger appeared and gave everyone their Fultons to get on board. While she didn't take them before, a bit of curiosity gripped her this time and she actually grabbed one this time. Although she found that after this point she'd probably only take one if she couldn't locate the Avenger and fly to it on her own, as the way up she could handle, but the waiting to be picked up she couldn't. Not without a mirror or something anyway to pass the time.

At least unlike some of the others, she didn't pass out and when she was on the Avenger so late at night she made her way to the showers to clean herself off and get rid of any of Absalom's corruption gunk she got on herself. At least there was one that accommodated her size, but it still took her a good bit to get as clean as she'd like. Plus now she had a good amount of time to just look herself over int he mirror and pretty herself up before she went to bed. So far no one had chosen to bunk with her, meaning she had a room all to herself. She wasn't against bunking with someone in all honesty, but they'd have to take care of themselves.

---

Blazermate, not being someone who needed to actually sleep, took some time to head back to her room. Since she took a good amount of time, she saw the next group of people get picked up and go about their business with Blazermate more or less floating around and vibing a bit before she went back to her room. Although what she saw when she got there was... Well, she knew Nadia and Ace had a thing for each other but she wasn't expecting to walk into that. They could've put a sign on the door or something! "Well, guess it was about time huh?" She moved aside to let Ace out as Nadia gave her quite the look.

"Uh, yeah. Well, guess I've seen that so things can't get more awkward from here." Blazermate said, walking into her room and plopping herself face down on her bed. "Don't think because I'm a robot I don't know what was going on there by the way." She said, turning her head to talk clearly. "If you guys need privacy, just put a sign or a tie or a ribbon or something on the door." she said in a deadpan voice, before going on. "I've been on the internet, I know these things. By the way, when your a popular girl medabot, don't search your own name." She then flipped onto her back and decided to try to get some sleep, seeing as Nadia would be doing the same before long and to her knowledge not many would be up at this hour anyway.

For a dozen or so minutes, anyone passing by the training room would be able to hear something strange, namely, the muffled sound of yelling and screaming. Perhaps not the oddest thing to come out of said room, some people did get very into their training and very vocal with their violence after all, but it was odd both because there was no sound of said violence, and also odd that anyone would be training at this time of day, particularly given the amount of activity all of the seekers had been up too.

Roxas was in the next room over in Professor Koa’s lab in order to show him Titan. During this brief conversation he heard the shouts and screams from the Training Room next door. So, out of curiosity, he bid the Professor good night and then made his way next door to see what was going on there.

Upon the door sliding open to the sound of bowser jr yelling ”-leaving me behind and going off with-” only for his mouth to snap shut as his sister, who was looking both tired and out of breath where she was sitting on a chair conveniently facing the door waved at Roxas.

”Hi there. Did you need the room? We where just about done”

”I heard all the screaming.” Roxas said with some confusion on his face, ”Are you guys… okay?”

”What? No? Yes? Everythings fine!” Jr insisted far too frantically while Rika simply started to tell the truth, saying ”Primrose suggested we scream to release the pressure of-” only for Jr to interrupt.

He pointed one finger at the new pokeball the Nobody was sporting, and stated the obvious ”You caught another pokemon” and then declared that ”we should battle! That’s what trainers do when they lock eyes” having apparently at some point over the week looked up pokemon trainer ‘etiquette’ on his new phone since they last met.

Rika just looked sort of bemused by this, before shrugging it off.

If Jr had learned trainer etiquette then there was no getting out of a battle this time. So Roxas would just have to give the prince what he wanted and battle him. He jogged a ways across the training room in order to take up a position, ”As a matter of fact I did catch a new Pokemon.” Roxas said, grabbing Titan’s Poke Ball and throwing it in order to send it out. ”Go! Titan!” Upon its release from the Poke Ball, the Golett struck a pose by flexing its arms and then began awaiting orders.



”Pff, ‘Titan’ but it’s so-” Jr began to taunt before recognizing that he and the pokemon were practically the same size, and promptly pivoting to ”-cool, whatever it is”

”Golett, the Ground Ghost Automaton Pokémon apparently” Rika helpfully informed him, having stolen her brother’s rotom phone out of his duffle bag mainly so she could goof off on it while the trainers did their thing, but providing a bit of help while she was at it.

”huh alright then…. Mimi, I choose you!” the prince decided after a moment’s thought, plucking a pokeball from his bandolier and tossing it forth, summoning his Mimikyu to the field.

Titan surely towered over her, but didn’t let this intimidate her, the pikachu mimicker running electricity through her stick tail in her own little show of power… only to realize that such a power was no threat to her grounded foe and to look a little less confident.

”Yeah we won’t need that. Mimi hone your claws so we can make the next hit hurt!” Jr commanded, prompting the speedier mon to flick out a tendril and run its digits down the stick tail like it was a scratching post. Then when she pulled them back the claw tips flashed as the move boosted her attack and accuracy.

”Use Shadow Punch!” Roxas called, prompting Titan to go lunging forward at the Mimikyu with a ghostly-powered punch with its fist. The move was nearly impossible to avoid due to its nature and its typing was also in fact super effective against a fellow Ghost type like Mimikyu.

Unfortunately, rather than hit the specter's real body, the punch hit her disguise, bopping the fake head so far back it looked like its neck had snapped, leaving the mon herself unashamed. Physically anyway. Emotionally she was quite upset by this, such that she relished to obey the command of ”Shadow sneak!” from her trainer.

She darted away, and then shoved her freshly sharpened claw into her shadow itself, causing it to twist, elongate, and then slip under the opposing pokemon. Once it was long enough to be out the other side, a shadowy copy of Mimi arose and lashed out with sharpened claws at the foe.

That attack hit Titan hard. He wasn’t down just yet, but he would be unless Roxas did something about this. ”Stomping Tantrum!” Roxas called out, eliciting a move from the Golett that was exactly as its name implied. Titan stamped its feet repeatedly and generated a weak tremor in the room that would deal Ground type damage to the Mimikyu and hopefully throw its balance off long enough for Roxas to call out a follow up, ”Iron Defense!” To which Titan responded by ceasing its stomping and then curling up defensively while a metallic sheen covered its body to sharply increase its defense in anticipation of another potential Shadow Sneak.

”Hey no fair, ” jr complained, before commanding ”hold it together Mimi!” but unfortunately the little mon with her busted disguise was rather susceptible to being shoogle this way and that by the stomping strike, the poor little thing being thrown about like she was on a bouncy castle during an earthquake. Only when the shaking stopped did she manage to recover, prompting Jr to call out ”Finally!” before following it up with a command to ”shadow sneak it again!” only for this hit to do far less damage to the iron defense of Titan.

Even with sharpened defenses, super effective damage was still nothing to sneeze at. And at this point Titan was getting dangerously close to fainting. As such, Roxas figured he should recall the ghost type and let it rest, but not before getting in at least one more attack. ”Use another Shadow Punch!” This prompted Titan to launch another shadowy rocket punch at the Mimikyu. At this rate, it seemed like both Pokemon might just go down and it was only a matter of which would fall first.

The spectral fist the size of herself blasted towards the tiny mimikyu, and to say it hurt was an understatement, the little pokemon benign sent tumbling back by the blow, and only barely managing to keep herself up after the strike.

”Come on you can do it Mimi, take them down!” the prince commanded, prompting the mon to initiate another shadow sneak right as Roxas prepared to swap out.

”Return!” Roxas called, quick enough on the draw to withdraw Titan to its Poke Ball before the attack came, ”Your turn, Scamp, go!” This prompted Scamp - who had been standing at Roxas’ side watch, to go scampering into the battle. But the shadow sneak was still coming, and so it was Scamp who took the attack instead. But he was fresh into the fight so it wasn't too difficult for him to shake off the damage. ”Use Nuzzle, Scamp!”

The heavily damaged by the big hit she’d taken, Mimi attempted to evade, but though she’d done her best, she went down to the nuzzle without scoring a K.O, much to her trainers annoyance.

”Sneaky… but let’s see if you can handle this!” the prince retorted to this setback, recalling Mimi and then tossing out a fresh pokeball with a ”Go, Peeka!”

With a little flash of light, the ball opened and released Jr’s modified fusion Flutter Mane, the necklace of living purple eyes around her neck glancing to and fro before locking onto her target alongside her own.

”Hit it with a confused ray!” the prince called out, prompting all of the mon’s eyes to blink, go wide and then shoot a flurry of muti-colored pulsing orbs that showered towards the nimble Scamp.

”Fight through it and use Nuzzle!” Was Roxas’ call. Scamp appeared to stumble a bit before hitting himself in his confusion. Not the best of luck, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t shake it off next time around.

”Now, get in close and hit it with a Dazzling gleam” Jr commanded, taking advantage of the confusion to have his mon deliver a point blank shot. Peeka swooped in, her necklace of eyes glowing brighter and brighter before delivering a powerful flash right before Scamp’s eyes.

Of course, that did leave her right in melee range where the special attacker should probably have not been. A more experienced trainer would have taken advantage of this to inflict a status ailment then use the opportunity to switch to another Pokemon with a clearer type advantage. Roxas… was not that experienced.

”Use Spark, Scamp! You can do this!” Instead the less experienced Roxas went for a high damage hit which in itself was a bit of a gamble due to Scamp still being confused. But his luck held out this time as Scamp rammed his body into Peeka while it was electrified for a physical electric attack.

The Flutter Mane was physically knocked back, tumbling end over end till she caught herself with her ghostly levitation.

”Fly up and stay evasive Peeka, that’ll be the last hit you take!” Jr commanded, getting his ghost to float up to the ceiling before commanding her to ”Psybeam!” prompting the mon to shoot a thin pink beam of psychic energy down at Scamp that connected, the mon’s confusion making it difficult to avoid attacks.

At this point Roxas finally decided to pivot to another strategy. ”Return!” He withdrew Scamp back into his Poke Ball and selected the third from his belt. If Jr wanted an aerial battle, then that’s what he would get. ”You’re up, Shocker! Use Air Slash!” As soon as the Fan-Rotom was out of its ball, it floated up a bit and then rotated its fan-blades to send up a blast of razor sharp wind at Peeka.

Peeka did a half tumble to avoid some of the damage, prompting Jr to command her to dive down and ”Wish!” causing a golden glow to start shimmering around the spot the mon was hovering at, that seemingly had no effect. Yet.

Not yet noticing any strategy in play, Roxas kept up the pressure. ”Keep using Air Slash!” He called to the Shocker, who did as commanded and continued to use its fan-blades to blow sharp blasts of air at the Flutter Mane.

Before the strike landed, Jr grabbed two pokeballs, using one to call back Peeka, and then tossed out a replacement with a command of ”Go Dazzle! Stay in the light”

His Brionne landed in the glowing aura Peeka had set up, took the air slash, and then, right after, the Wish came true, revitalizing Dazzle back to full hp. Now that he was out, the prince commanded ”Now! Icy Wind! Freeze that fan!” prompting his minion to blow a bubble, slap it with his tail, and release a slowing gust of frost filled air towards the flying fan.

Thinking on his feet, Roxas issued his command, ”Double Team!” Prompting the Rotom to start darting around and leaving afterimages in its wake. This would help throw off the accuracy of the Icy Wind and prevent a super effective hit, at least for now.

Indeed, the second icy wind failed to land a strike, the blast of wind hitting nothing but doppelgangers, but after Rika leaned in to point something out on the koopa prince’s phone, he had an idea.

”Disarming voice!” he commanded, prompting the mon to let loose a barrage of sound that it swept across the room, the charming cry entirely unavoidable if unfortunately less effective than the icy wind it was replacing.

Now was when Roxas noticed that they were grabbing tips from Jr’s Rotom Phone. Well two could play at that game. While Shocker was hit by the Disarming Voice, he wasn’t down for the count yet and was ready to make another move. Roxas meanwhile had used his Rotom Phone and learned something interesting about one of Shocker’s moves. ”Return!” He called, recalling the Rotom back into its Poke Ball and then tossed Scamp’s back out.

A bit damaged from before but no longer confused thanks to having been withdrawn previously, Scamp barked his usual “bow-wark!” before Roxas issued his command. ”Nuzzle!” Scamp barked and charged for the Brionne, a Pokemon that didn’t look very mobile while it was on dry thanks to having a tail instead of hind legs.

It certainly wasn’t and especially not with its tail having been turned from sealion-like to ghost-whale-like. However that transformation had left it with an alternative.

”Counter charge it with a… dive dash?” Jr commanded with just a bit of hesitancy, lacking the proper name (twisting dive) for his fused pokemon’s illegal 5th move. As such, the super effective strike landed on the poor mon, and so rather than a counter charge it was more of a retaliation, as a wash of water surrounded Dazzle as it lunged forwards, briefly stunning Scamp as the electric dog was pushed ahead of the dash. Then, when it ended, the pup was also struck by the concussive splash of the water which continued to wash forwards while Dazzle himself landed on the ground.

Luckily for Dazzle, Nuzzle was not a strong damaging move. So while it was super effective, it wasn’t as hard of a hit as a move like Spark would have been. But on the flipside, Nuzzle making contact also meant that it ensured the Brionne was inflicted with paralysis - halving its speed and incurring a 50/50 chance that it wouldn’t be able to move in order to attack when commanded. But wanting to follow through with the hint Roxas earlier learned from his phone, Roxas made the choice to recall Scamp once again. ”Return!”

Once Scamp was safely back in his Poke Ball, Roxas readied the ball that Shocker was in. ”Back to you, Shocker!” And he threw it out, sending the Rotom back into battle. This was the part that was a gamble, since Dazzle could get in a pre-emptive attack if it managed to fight through the paralysis. But Roxas made his call as well. ”Electro Ball!” which would prompt the Rotom to fire a sphere of electric energy at the Brionne. The hint Roxas had learned would come in here, as Electro Ball could deal more damage the slower the target was. So hitting it with Nuzzle earlier to make it paralyzed would, if this hit, allow it to deal boosted super effective damage.

Indeed, the electro ball careened straight into the very slow sea lion with no chance for it to dodge, dealing devastating damage and taking it down with a singular blow, resulting in an expanded growl from Jr who’d als not been quick enough on the draw to switch out before this happened.

He paused for a moment as he grabbed his final ball, realizing ”Wait… wait.. How am I down to one pokemon and you still have all three!?” utterly bemused at being out played like this, even if a lot of it was a result of bad type match-ups.

”Gah, then it's all down to you Peeka!” He called out, as he re-deployed his paradox pokemon, the specter floating up into the air to face off against its fellow ghost type.

Unfortunately, his one had no ghost type moves at the moment, and she’d also already taken two wind blasts to boot.

”Eye blast it, slow it down!” jr commanded, again not knowing the correct name for Peeka’s new plasma fuson, but that didn’t stop her from being able to use it. Twin orbs of purple plazma burst from the ghost’s necklace of eyes, which had the curious property of benign able to split a part at a pair of right angles to their path whenever the mon desired, making them quite tricky to dodge (and if they did hit, the target would be slowed to a crawl for just a few moments)

Neither Roxas nor Shocker knew what to make of the eye blast attack. It didn’t seem like a normal kind of move for a Pokemon to be using. But then again, there was still a lot about this Roxas didn’t know, so he shrugged and went with it. As for Shocker, being switched out meant he was no longer benefiting from Double Team like earlier. So he took the attack and looked to be in rough shape afterwards. ”Air Slash!” Roxas called, learning only now that the attack had slowed down Shocker.

”Dazzling Gleam, close range!” Jr called out, prompting Peeka to dive right up into Shocker’s face as it pivoted too slowly to line up the shot, resulting in it receiving an eyeful of fairy lights when it did manage it.

Shocker wasn’t going to stay up much longer. Roxas needed to make the next one count. ”Confuse Ray!” He called, hoping Peeka’s close proximity helped in making this hit, which it did indeed.

”Come on, finish it off! Give it another!” Jr commanded, only for the mon to fumble the charging of the next flash, instead searing herself around the neck as the dazzling gleam sputtered and backfired. ”No no no! Snap out of it!”

Roxas had to be quick, ”Return!” Then he fumbled a moment for Scamp’s Poke Ball before finally sending him back out. ”Use Nuzzle!” But his momentary fumble with the Poke Ball meant the attack wasn’t as quick on the draw as he was hoping. That meant Peeka could try to dodge or attack in spite of the incoming Nuzzle.

”Up up just move, that’s easy!” Jr commanded, and indeed gliding into the sky wasn’t something Peeka could really mess up. Or well. She could. She went down instead. But being a ghost the result was, frankly, even better as she simply phased through the floor.

”Uhhhh” jr went as he glanced around, only for Peeka to pop up behind him and to rise up into the air, now seemingly back in control of her senses, allowing jr to command ”Wish again quick!” without fear of her hurting herself.

Great, now what? Not only could Peeka stay out of reach, but was about to get healing thanks to that move. Not unless Roxas had some way of inflicting damage over time to try and counterattack, but he was pretty sure he didn’t have that… right? A quick look at his Rotom Phone later, and Roxas found his answer… and it was a risky play. ”Stay on guard, Scamp, be ready to move at the first sign of movement.” Roxas was choosing not to make an attack for now. Instead he dug into his trainer bag and pulled out one of the potions from the medicine pocket. It was sort of like a spray, and Roxas used it… on Titan’s Poke Ball. Apparently these potions were specifically designed to work even on a Pokemon still in their Poke Ball.

”Oh, we’re doing that are we? Well in that case” jr replied to this use of a potion, by pulling out his own, which he hadn’t had much use out of given that he could, well, heal with magic. As a result of this combination of jr spraying Peeka with a potion and the Wish landing unopposed put the prince’s final mon back at more or less full HP.

Really the only one complaint about this time use was Rika, who gave a little sigh and, bluntly, requested ”Can we not make this training battle take forever please? Save those for actual important fights. Plus I am tiiiiired”

”What, he did it first!” Jr retorted, but his sister was having none of it and simply replied ”K. Now can both of you stop? N’ no magic either”

”I wasn’t gonna!”

In his defense, Roxas had no idea Jr would mimic his move. But Rika had a point, so was this only potion Roxas would use. And Jr healing may well prove to be a mistake. Since now that the Flutter Mane was out from hiding in order to receive the potion, that meant Scamp could attack. ”Quick Scamp, use Nuzzle while it’s back out in the open!”

The mon had indeed had to come down low so Jr could spray it, resulting in Scamp being able to dart in close to paralyze her, slowing and, unluckily, causing her to fail to respond to her master’s command to strike back.

”gah, these statue moves are really strong” the prince complained/observed, though he had also gotten somewhat unlucky with those as well.

Roxas withdrew Scamp. Now was the risky part. He selected Titan’s Poke Ball and threw it to the floor. The ghost automaton struck its pose after releasing from the Ball. ”Use Curse!” The move summoned a nail-like stake that stabbed into Titan, dealing damage and in return inflicting the Flutter Mane with the Cursed status. This would cause Peeka to lose 25% of its total health after every attack it made. The only way to get rid of the status was to switch, which Jr currently couldn’t do as his other Pokemon were both fainted. Now the battle was on a ticking clock. Either Peeka would finish off Scamp and Shocker, or Peeka would go down to the damage from Curse. It all came down to how long Scamp and Shocker could last and press their luck with Peeka’s paralysis. And so Roxas sent Scamp back out.

”Peeka eye blast” Jr commanded, the mon pushing through the shock to launched a plasma fusion blasts at Scamp, before demanding to know ”What did he do?!” when the mon took damage from this as a result of the curse.

”3 attacks before she’s down, and that’s if she takes 0 hits” Rika replied simply resulting in a panicked shout from Jr, followed by her grabbing his paintbrush to stop him from trying to cure his mon with magic.

The girl really wanted to get some sleep at this point.

Still unfamiliar with that strange move, Scamp was unable to avoid it and took the hit. He staggered and stumbled, struggling to stay on his feet. Then, he flopped down, fainted. ”Return!” Roxas withdrew Scamp, and was now also down to his last Pokemon. ”It’s up to you now!” He released Shocker from its Poke Ball, who also was looking damaged. It really was down to wire now. ”Double Team!” Roxas called. A bit longer. Just a bit longer. He just had to last…

”Gah but that’s so… Peeka try to hit em both with an eye blast!” Jr commanded, seeing what the strategy here was, and hoping this could counter it. His mon swooped round til she thought she had an angle, and then shot fourth the twin plasma fusion blast, which then split in between the doppelgangers, one orb shooting off towards each one.

That did it. Shocker was down. The Rotom didn’t have the energy to take any more hits than that. So with Shocker fainted, that was the last of Roxas’ Pokemon. ”Close call.”

”Yesss ahaha!” Jr cheered and laughed with elation, while Rika did a little ”woo” of support that was genuine despite her tiredness. Still once the rush was over Jr really did have to agree that ”Wow yeah, it really was a close one huh?” as he prepped and then used his magic to cure his final badly beat up mon of her curse before she fainted from celebrating her sweep (or really her just barley executed cleanup of Roxas’ beaten and bruised party) too hard.

In short order he’d use that same magic to heal up all their mon as well.

”Well, better luck next time I guess.” Roxas said with a grin and a shrug. ”Hope the battle cheered you up from whatever was bothering you earlier.” Said Roxas with a yawn. ”But we really should be getting some sleep now.”

”Mmm hmmm” Rika agreed, while Jr had paused for a moment, gave a ”I uh. huh” before looking at Roxas a little suspiciously for a second. Then he raised and offered a slightly hesitant fist bump even as he insisted that ”Yeah, good luck next time. You’ll need it, coz I’m gonna be even stronger then”

Roxas widened his grin and accepted the fist bump. ”Deal.”

Ganondorf’s arrival in the early hours of the morning had a bit of an awkward start to it. Obviously his wardrobe had changed significantly, and the lack of gaunt features that Ikana’s spirit had given him meant that he wasn’t recognized at first until the two gate guards got a better look at him. But after that he was allowed back in and things were back to business as usual. As per his communication with Riju the night before, the first thing Ganondorf was asked to do was have an audience with her in order fill her in on the pertinent details he had learned about the Consuls and the Flame Clock.

That, however, was not the first thing Ganondorf actually did. There was another smaller bit of business he wanted to take care of beforehand. Something that he knew would have to be the first domino to fall on the eventual path toward freeing all of Gerudo Town. And her name was Nabooru. Being from the same era Ganondorf himself hailed from, Nabooru knew the King of Evil better than any of the other Gerudo in town. And that meant she trusted in him the least out of everyone. If he was to free anyone else from Gerudo Town, then the last thing he wanted was for someone as distrusting as Nabooru to be questioning his every move. As such, his old rival from their younger days would have to be the first to be de-storied.

”A moment, Nabooru?” The warlord asked after he found her in a war room poured over a tactical map of the desert territory. A room like this was obviously used for planning campaigns and sorties into battle. Nabooru herself looked up from the map table with a skeptical expression on her face. She was obviously not thrilled to see him.

“Is it true?” she asked, “You actually managed to find your mothers?”

”I have a lead on their location, but I have not had the chance to investigate it yet.” Ganondorf replied. ”But that’s not why I’ve come to see you.”

“Well what is it then?” Nabooru shot back, “Spit it out already.”

There was no good way to explain what he was about to do. And so Ganondorf decided it was better to just rip the bandage off and provide the explanations afterward. Hopefully this basement level room was soundproof enough for this not to draw too much attention from anyone in the upper levels. Ganondorf said nothing, and without warning made a surprising lunge for Nabooru’s neck that managed to catch her off guard. That let him get her with a hard hitting Flame Choke that left her singed and winded, gasping for breath. Surely that had to be enough for this to work.

”You’ll thank me for this, later.” He said, doubting that this sounded reassuring to her. But nevertheless he produced a Friend Heart and thrust it down into her as she was staggering to her feet. And just as he hoped, the Heart did its job. Nabooru’s colors all returned to normal, the red glow left her eyes, and whatever injuries she sustained from the attack were healed to boot.

“What…? What did you…?” Nabooru coughed out, still trying to get her breath back. She looked like she was a mix of confused and angry, which was no surprise at all. “Did you put these memories in my head?” She demanded.

”No.” Ganondorf said, then explained. ”I restored your memories to how they should be. You’re welcome.”

“What do you mean, Ganondorf? Explain yourself!”

”Everyone in this world has been under a spell.” Ganondorf said. ”Galeem’s spell. It purges Galeem from your knowledge and memories, and makes you susceptible to being controlled by the Consuls.”

“Galeem?” Nabooru said, looking as though she was simultaneously remembering that name and learning it for the first time.

”The false god I warned Riju of yesterday.” Ganondorf clarified. ”The one whom the Consuls serve.” Then he added. ”But now I have broken that spell on you. But only you.”

“Why?” Nabooru demanded. “Why me and not Lady Riju?”

”Because you would have tried to stop me.” Ganondorf said simply. ”Ergo, you needed to be the first.”

“First?” Nabooru asked, beginning to comprehend Ganondorf’s intentions. “Then you intend to break the spell for us all?”

”I do.” He confirmed. ”But doing it one person at a time is too inefficient. It will be much smoother to free everyone in one fell swoop.”

“Is that why you are so interested in the Flame Clock? Will destroying it break the spell on the town?”

”So I’ve been told.” Ganondorf said. ”But for now the priority should be to break the spell on Riju.”

“The best chance to do that is to break the hold on Bulliara first. With the both of us freed from that spell, then freeing Lady Riju from it will be much easier.” Nabooru suggested.

”Simple enough.” Said Ganondorf. ”For now I have an audience to attend to.”

About fifteen minutes later, the King of Evil stood before the throne yet again. Lady Riju sat upon it, and both Nabooru and Bulliara were at her sides as before. But one critical difference between this audience and the previous one, was the lack of a crowd. Ganondorf’s return to Gerudo Town had not elicited nearly as much gossip and attention as the first arrival had. Also Ganondorf was now alone, with none of his allies from The Avenger here to back him up in the event things went poorly. So he would just have to make sure that didn’t happen.

“You say you’ve learned how to destroy the Flame Clock?” Riju asked, wanting to get down to brass tacks.

”Indeed.” Ganondorf confirmed. ”I learned that one of the Consuls decided to defect and turn against his fellows. And so I was able to ask him directly about the Flame Clocks.”

“And…?”

”To put it simply, we will need a specific kind of individual. No one such as you or I will be able to damage it.” Unfortunately Ganondorf had to be a bit vague for now since Riju was not yet de-storied and he didn’t know how she would take to the idea of people being born inside and outside the “system”, as Consul S had put it.

But Riju was catching on to his vagueness and asked for clarification. “What kind of person do we need, exactly?”

The only thing Ganondorf could do was make up an excuse. ”I still haven’t confirmed those details yet, I’m afraid. But when I do, you will be the first one I inform.”

Riju cocked an eyebrow but ultimately nodded and accepted the answer. “See that you do. Now, you also told me you have located your missing mothers, correct?”

”Indeed. I know their location, I’ll just need time to plan an expedition to get to them. They’re in a place called The Courtyard, beyond a mountain range far to the west of here. Once I can find them and bring them back home, they’ll be of great service to the tribe, I can assure you.” After this, Ganondorf gestured back toward Riju. ”But for the time being, I have been given a few days of free time that I decided to spend here to see what I can do for you against the Bandit Horde.”

“Have you any ideas on that front?” Riju asked.

”If these deserts are anything like I remember them, then there will be nomadic tribes marking their territory in the regions outside of the town’s walls. I wish to approach these tribes and bring them under our banner to expand Gerudo Town’s sphere of influence and bolster our manpower.”

“Those tribes are of monsters.” Nabooru chimed in, “This sounds an awful lot like the same campaign you previously waged against Hyrule.”

”That was an effective strategy then, and I believe it will also be effective here.” Ganondorf retorted. ”So long as a certain someone doesn’t try to turn the tribe against me this time, of course.”

Nabooru bristled a bit, but said nothing in reply.

“In any case, Nabooru has been managing the scout parties.” Riju said. “So any intelligence we’ve gathered on the roaming tribes can be obtained from her as needed.” It sounded like she was in agreement with Ganondorf’s proposal. “Is there anything else that needs to be discussed?”

”One last item.” Ganondorf said, holding up an index finger for emphasis. ”You told me before that Consul X periodically visits you. She must not discover my presence here, or it will cause trouble for all of us. Simply give me an advanced warning for her visits so that I can plan to be away from town during that time, that should be all we need to do.”

“Simple enough.” Riju responded. “And speaking of which, I received word earlier that Consul X plans to visit the town tomorrow afternoon.”

”Then I shall spend tomorrow putting our plan for the tribes in motion. I’ll depart in the morning and return after sundown.”

“Very good. Meeting adjourned, then, if there’s nothing else?” Riju said. Everyone nodded.

Ten minutes after the conclusion of the audience, Ganondorf found himself in the war room again. He was meeting Nabooru down here to get the intelligence about the tribes from her. Well, that and one other purpose that wasn’t discussed in the audience chamber. “These are the largest of the tribes.” Nabooru said, pointing to areas on the map that roughly served as the tribes’ territories. “One of them is a Lizalfos Tribe, so I’m guessing you already know what to expect from them. Just one word of warning, their chief is a Dinalfos, so expect to have to deal with fire. The Konoc Tribe seems to be the friendliest of the bunch. Scout reports say they can sway foes into friends with their music. If that’s true, then they might be able to help you sway the other tribes.”

”And what of this larger tribe?” Ganondorf inquired, indicating a third area of the map that Nabooru had not yet pointed toward.

“That’s Morthagi Tribe territory. I wouldn’t bother with them, if I were you.” she advised. “Those creatures seem more like machines than anything else, might be too dangerous.”

”’Dangerous’ is exactly what I need.”

“If you’re going to insist on approaching them, save them for last so you can minimize the risk.” Nabooru said with an exasperated sigh. Just after this, another Gerudo entered the war room. It was Bulliara - aka the other reason Ganondorf and Nabooru had convened down here.

“So what was so urgent that you needed me down here?” she asked Nabooru, who had been the one to send for her. But while Bulliara’s attention was Nabooru, she did not notice Ganondorf maneuvering behind her. The warlord grabbed the bodyguard from behind and put her in a Nelson hold, also managing to clamp a hand over her mouth to prevent shouting or screaming. It was Nabooru who acted next, grabbing a nearby dagger and sinking it into Bulliara’s side from the front, looking like she hated every moment of this. But Ganondorf had told her that this was the only way it would work. Then Nabooru produced a Friend Heart as Ganondorf had instructed and also thrust it into Bulliara. The Heart did its job, breaking Galeem’s spell and healing the Gerudo Bodyguard as a bonus.

“What was that?” Bulliara demanded after Ganondorf released his hold on her, “Why am I suddenly… learning or… remembering things?”

As Ganondorf had done before, this time it was Nabooru who explained that everyone in Town was under Galeem’s spell and that this was how the Consuls maintained their control of territories. Bulliara was a bit easier to convince than Nabooru was, probably because she trusted Nabooru a lot more than Nabooru trusted Ganondorf. Regardless, as long as this was going smoothly, that was all that mattered to the warlord in question.

“So if I understand all this,” Bulliara said while rubbing her temples. “Destroying that Flame Clock will break this spell on everyone in town at once?”

”More or less.” Ganondorf confirmed. ”You could slowly do it one person at a time like this, but, well…”

“Too inefficient.” Bulliara finished.

“We need to break the spell on Lady Riju as well.” Nabooru said, “That’s why I needed to get you down here.”

“What about the Consul?” Bulliara asked, turning to look at Ganondorf. “Will she sense something amiss if she notices some of us are free of spell?”

”If she sees that Riju is de-storied, I have no doubt she’ll find us out.”

“Then we wait until the Consul departs and can know for sure that she won’t be back for a while.” Bulliara said, “Then we can free Lady Riju from this spell.”

”Until then, we go on as normal.” Ganondorf said. ”You may also want to consider making sure you’re away from the palace when the Consul visits. Minimize the chance that she sees you up close and realizes you’ve been freed.”

Both the Gerudo nodded in agreement. With all of this business completed, that ended Ganondorf’s first day back in Gerudo Town.



That morning, Ganondorf had a small breakfast in order to give himself an early start. As such, it was only around 9:00 AM when he departed Gerudo Town through its front gates. Accompanying him was a small squad of five Gerudo scouts and his Moblin Squad to serve as an entourage. Ganondorf wasn’t anticipating much of a fight from the place he was going to, with him leading the charge they were probably more than capable of handling the situation if things went awry.

Ganondorf followed the map sketch he had obtained from the war room that would point him toward where the tribes were last seen moving. He took Nabooru’s advice and decided to avoid the Morthagi for now. And while he was certainly capable of dealing with the Lizalfos Tribe as is, he also wanted to minimize how much he actually fought these tribes. After all, they wouldn’t provide nearly as much manpower if a number of them were slain in battle first.

As they were traveling, Ganondorf spotted something in the distance, barely visible. He almost thought it was a mirage at first. It looked like some kind of structure, unnatural, possibly manmade? It was hard to say from this distance, but whatever it was it also looked like there was a constant lightning storm around it, too far away to hear any thunder from the lightning strikes. Ganondorf decided to ignore it for now, as he had another objective he needed to focus on.

A couple hours later, Ganondorf and his entourage had reached what should have been the territory they were looking for. This was confirmed by the faint sound of music being heard from further on, past some sandy dunes. At this, Ganondorf held up a hand to halt his company. He instructed them to stay back so that he could approach the tribe alone. Better to look like a lone visitor for now than to look like a conqueror with an army. Ganondorf climbed up over the dunes ahead and was able to look down into what he assumed was the tribe’s encampment.

They didn’t look very advanced, relying on teepee shelters and outdoor campfires. They appeared to be some kind of cyclopean reptiles, with purple scales and what looked to be prehensile tails with… stingers of some kind on the tip? But his information had told Ganondorf that it was this tribe’s music that would be of special interest to him. So before he actually went down from the top of the dune, he waited a bit and listened to the music they were playing - which was mostly on drums and maracas. It didn’t seem particularly magical to him. Although perhaps it had no effect on him because he wasn’t a monster? Or maybe this was not the same music they used to sway hostile tribes? Well, there was only one way to learn more, and so Ganondorf descended from the dune to make his approach.

It didn’t take long for him to be spotted. The music faded to a stop as members of the Konoc tribe stared at the stranger visiting them with a mix of caution and curiosity. Ganondorf held out his arms as a gesture to show he was not going to draw any weapons on them. In response, the members of the tribe turned their eyes toward an older member who was likely their shaman or chief. The older Konoc approached Ganondorf with a bit less caution than the others were showing, probably as a show of confidence or perhaps to even return the gesture of nonviolence.

”I am Ganondorf.” the Warlord said. ”I speak for the Gerudo Tribe.” he clarified, unsure if his words could be understood.

“We know Gerudo.” the Elder Konoc said, though his speech didn’t sound fluent. “Powerful tribe, at war with Bandit Horde.”

”Those bandits have been raiding territories all over the desert, I am told.” Ganondorf said, ”I imagine they’ve been sighted here in your lands as well. That is why the Gerudo wish to form a pact with your tribe.”

“Make pact, fight together?” Elder Konoc asked. “Konoc sing and dance, not good for making war.” This seemed like a reasonable protest. The Konoc were not described as warlike like some other tribes.

”Your music is said to sway enemies and make them become your friends. Is that true?”

“Some music make friends of enemies, yes. But too dangerous to play for whole tribes, might cause war.”

”And if I were to promise the protection of the Gerudo Tribe? Would you be willing to help me persuade other tribes to join us, then?”

There was a long pause. Clearly the elder was considering the offer. And he even murmured some things among his people for a few moments before he turned back to Ganondorf, grabbed his hand and raised it up alongside his own. “Konoc welcome friends from Gerudo Tribe!”

After this, Ganondorf called for his entourage to come to the village. He spent a few hours negotiating terms with the Konoc Elder. This was a bit challenging at first due to the Konoc not being fluent in Ganondorf’s language, but they eventually made things work in the end. There was also some food and songs all throughout as a celebration of the alliance being formed.

During all the celebrating, Ganondorf was looking out into the distance toward where the sun was beginning to hang low. And it was then that he spotted it again. The strange, unnatural structure from before. It wasn’t quite as far away as before so he could occasionally hear faint sounds of thunder with the lightning strikes. But the reduced distance allowed him to make out a few more details than before. Namely that structure looked like an animal of some kind and appeared to be… moving? And the colors made it look strangely familiar. He was certain he’d never seen that structure before, so why was he getting a sense of deja vu from it? His mind thought back to his time in the Under. While down there he had a dream once where he battled a Consul in the fields of Hyrule, and said Consul summoned a colossal beast machine down from Death Mountain. Was this somehow related?

”Tell me, what is that in the distance?” Ganondorf asked one of the Gerudo as they were all traveling back to Gerudo Town, he was pointing in the distance at the moving structure.

“That is Divine Beast Vah Naboris.” the Gerudo answered. “An ancient weapon from a bygone era. It used to serve as a protector and guardian of Gerudo Desert, but no one has been able to control it for a very long time.”

”Interesting…” Ganondorf said, but did not say anything more. Could he find a way to control that weapon? It was something he would have to consider looking into on a later day. For now, he needed to return to town and follow through with his current plans. Better to learn to walk first before he tried learning to run, after all. The group’s return to Gerudo Town marked the end of Ganondorf’s second day here.



It was a little after 9:00 AM, and Ganondorf had once again traveled to the Konoc Tribe. He was accompanied by the same entourage as yesterday, and he had a straightforward plan for today. He requested a handful of Konoc musicians to join his entourage so that he could make his approach to the neighboring territory of the Lizalfos Tribe. As for the remainder of the Konoc Tribe, Ganondorf left behind instructions to begin fortifying their camp. Eventually he wanted it to become a proper garrison to better defend the area.

After this, Ganondorf and his expanded entourage departed the Konoc Camp and began to make their way further out into the desert wastes. The Lizalfos Tribe he was targeting today were a reptilian lizard people that Ganondorf was much more familiar with. They were generally hunters and more warlike, and capable of effectively fighting in coordinated pairs. They would make for strong shock troopers against the Bandit Hordes. But he had also heard that this particular tribe was led by a Dinalfos chief. Dinalfos were a stronger cousin of the Lizalfos, generally smarter and tougher as well, and capable of attacking with a fire breath. Ganondorf didn’t want to kill this chief if he could help it, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t willing to, if push came to shove.

When the encampment came into view in the distance, Ganondorf could already tell that the Lizalfos Tribe was different from the Konoc. Faint sounds of clashing weapons and high-pitched barks and battlecries indicated that there was some form of fighting going on. But upon listening more closely, Ganondorf could also hear the sounds of a training drum being rhythmically beaten. So there wasn’t actual battle being fought, instead it was training. And this became clear once some of the forms of the Lizalfos came into view. They seemed to have been paired off into partners who were sparring with one another. They wielded spears or bladed boomerang weapons.

At the center of all this was the one who Ganondorf assumed was the Chief. He was brawnier for the most part, and his scales were a darker hue. He also wore more armor than most of the others, in particular a helmet that masked the upper part of his face. His horn looked much more sharp and wicked than most of the others. And while the lizalfos were training with bones and bladed boomerangs made from fallen monster parts, the Dinalfos Chief instead carried a man-made sword and shield, probably scavenged off of a slain opponent. The tribe was caught up in their training ritual and had not yet noticed the approaching Ganondorf until the Konoc accompanying him began to play their befriending music.

The Dinalfos shot a glare at the visitors and barked out a warcry that was likely an order to attack. But the Konocs’ music appeared to be working for the moment, as the Lizalfos remained calm and did not yet move to attack. When he realized this, the Dinalfos screeched a fiercer battlecry and seemed to be deciding to deal with the music players himself. He lunged for an attack and attempted to spew a gout of fire from his mouth at the Konocs. But Ganondorf wasn’t having any of this. He moved to put himself between the Dinalfos and the Konoc which resulted in him taking the fire breath attack instead.

The Dinalfos looked ready to celebrate a victory over this, but only for a moment until he and the Lizalfos saw the glow of the Triforce on Ganondorf’s hand pierce through from within the cloud of smoke. Then the warlord used his cape to strongly blow away the smoke and reveal that he was completely unharmed. The power he gained from the spirit of Ceruledge had rendered him all but completely immune to flames. This display combined with the swelling music of the Konoc was enough to make the Dinalfos finally relent and kneel before the warlord, causing the Lizalfos to follow suit.

”Hmph, that’s what I thought.” Ganondorf said with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. Without the Konoc, he probably would have had to challenge the Dinalfos to some sort of duel to the death to subjugate the rest, but thanks to the swaying power of the Konocs’ music, that wouldn’t be necessary today.

As with the Konoc earlier, Ganondorf gave instructions to increase the fortifications of the Lizalfos Camp. Similarly, he wanted this to eventually become a proper garrison of some kind to defend this area. About an hour or two after the work began, some lizalfos drums began to beat as a warning of approaching bandits. It was some kind of bandit horde raiding party, probably around 30 strong. They were probably confident in their ability to take on the Lizalfos Tribe, but weren’t anticipating the presence of Ganondorf’s Entourage. In all honesty, Ganondorf actually somewhat appreciated the chance at some action. He could see this Bandit Horde for himself, and if he could achieve a resounding enough victory, it would further solidify his commanding position among the Konoc and Lizalfos.

Although when Ganondorf actually saw them, he wasn’t very impressed. Simple leather armor, brown hoods, and… were they all wielding daggers? This didn’t seem like the threat that Riju had made them out to be. He’d expected some form of command structure, at least. But these men all seemed quite indistinguishable from one another. If there was some kind of leader or commander, then they looked and dressed exactly like all the rest. Which in itself could have been some kind of strategy, but that may also have been giving them too much credit.

In any case, Ganondorf ordered his moblins to line up behind the defensive palisade barricades. And he also ordered the lizalfos to line up among them. He could order a charge and likely win that way, but he decided to hedge his bets in the case the bandits had ambush parties ready to charge down the dunes in the event the defenders were drawn out. And so for the moment he instead ordered volleys of spears and fire arrows to be lobbed into the charging bandits. And then Ganondorf even threw his own trident into the midst of the bandits and called down a blast of lightning upon it to take out a small swathe of them. After this there were very few left and that was when the charge was ordered. Ganondorf led the Lizalfos out from their defensive position and they crashed into the staggered remains of the bandit horde’s ranks.

But as he anticipated, Ganondorf spotted a second wave of bandits, this time around 25 strong making their way down the nearby dunes for a charge. And unlike the first wave, this time Ganondorf spotted a more distinct bandit among them, wearing a red hood rather than a brown one. Ah, so they did have at least some command. ”Fall back and soften them with projectiles!” Ganondorf was quick to order. But he himself decided to remain where he was, Trident at the ready. The fighting style he had adopted from Volga’s spirit made him quite suited for fighting large numbers, especially if he was being covered by arrows and thrown spears from his own forces further back.

The brown hoods fell about as easily as the first wave did. The red hood did put up more of a fight, showing themselves to be quite hardier than the brown hoods they seemingly commanded. But whatever elite strength they had still paled in comparison to Ganondorf, and so they too were felled in the end. That had to be the last wave, Ganondorf reasoned. Why else would the more elite red hood have been among them, otherwise?

But now Ganondorf found himself among a battlefield littered with what he assumed would be fading spirits. ”Bottle as many spirits as possible.” Ganondorf instructed the Gerudos in his entourage. He’d made sure they were equipped with a supply of glass bottles for this specific purpose. Ever since he had acquired the capsules containing spirits from the Orb Machine, Ganondorf had realized that spirits could be indefinitely sustained if they were kept in sealed containers. And so that gave him a method of being able to store large numbers of them for later use. Spirits such as these would have little use as strikers or fusion materials. And he also doubted they could provide very useful items, as well. But what they could be was a source of currency for information from Vulgrim.

Ganondorf’s entourage wasn’t able to successfully salvage all the spirits, but they did manage to bottle up 40 of them at least. During this, Ganondorf used the glyph in his ear provided by the archangel Sandalphon and made contact with her. He told her that he wanted The Avenger to send him someone who could pick up the spirits he’d claimed and take them back to the ship. Or, failing that, he requested a supply of extra fultons so he could use those to send them back a package of sorts. In the end, a hellpod shot down to the desert just outside of the Lizalfos Camp. Inside was a set of extra fultons - four to be exact. And Ganondorf used one immediately on the 40 bottled spirits after he had them tightly packaged together for stability. Also attached as a note instructing whoever received the package to store them in the ship’s armory.

By this time it was getting late, and Ganondorf decided to remain in the Lizalfos camp for the night. So rather than report to Riju in person, he did so using the linkpearl instead. And that marked the end of his third day in Gerudo Town.



Friday had been largely uneventful. Rather than stretch himself thin, Ganondorf instead used that day to consolidate the grounds he had made on Tuesday and Wednesday. He spent that day traveling back and forth between the Lizalfos Village and the Konoc Village in order to oversee the progress they made in fortifying their villages. There obviously wasn’t too much they could build in a single day, but they were able to get up some more barricades and the beginnings of actual walls to protect them more efficiently.

The only real item of note from Friday was another raid from the bandit hordes. This time they had targeted the Konoc Village. But by this time, Ganondorf had already ensured that some Lizalfos warriors were present to defend the Konoc, in addition to himself being there of course. The raid itself was largely identical to the first one, with the only difference being the number of waves. Instead of two waves of 30 and 25, it was three waves - 20 in the first, 20 in the second, and 25 in the third. And unlike the first raid, there was no elite red hood for Ganondorf to deal with personally. After it was over, Ganondorf was able to successfully bottle 45 spirits and have them sent back to the Avenger, once again to be stored in the Armory. Other than that, Ganondorf again decided to remain outside of Gerudo Town for the night to give himself as early of a start as he could the next morning.

Because this was the day Ganondorf decided that it was time to take on the Morthagi Tribe. This tribe was larger and more dangerous according to Nabooru. She’d said they were more like machines than anything else, ghastly and supposedly incapable of being reasoned with. The Warlord was certainly anticipating that he would have to subjugate them with a show of force, convince them that he was more beneficial as an ally, or at the very least too dangerous to risk trifling with.

The Morthagi themselves occupied a lone abandoned factory of sorts, perhaps it was once the centerpiece of a settlement at one time, but now it looked more like the remains of a ghost town occupied by ghastly mechanical monsters. And when Ganondorf’s entourage made their approach, the Morthagi were quick to show that they would not be negotiated with so easily. Ganondorf found his forces to be under attack, charged by scores of crawling scorpion-like Spectiks and a handful of hulking Batchbie. It was as Ganondorf anticipated, so the warlord summoned his trident and flew forward into a lunging charge that allowed him to smash into the onslaught of Spectiks before he immediately hurled his weapon into a circular throw around him as a way to clear the small fry. Then he threw it straight at a charging Batchby before switching to his swords to engage the remaining few. They had numbers, but Ganondorf had the raw power to overcome them. And so it didn’t take long for him to almost single-handedly dispatch the “welcoming party”.

After this, the monsters of the Morthagi were noticeably less quick to outright charge at him. In fact they appeared to be keeping their distance now as Ganondorf approached the factory itself and prepared to enter the proverbial belly of the beast. Instead another creature of the tribe came out of the front doors as if to greet him. It was a three-legged creature with an elongated skull for a head and appeared to only possess a single arm. And then it spoke, using a deeply mechanical-sounding voice that highlighted its machine-like nature. “Butler.” The creature said, as it used its one arm to gesture toward itself. It was introducing itself as the “Butler”, and Ganondorf surmised that it was likely not the true “leader” in the traditional sense, but acting instead as a spokesperson for the collective as a whole.

”Ganondorf.” The warlord reciprocated. ”I speak for the Gerudo Tribe.” He added. There was a pause before he heard any kind of response from the Butler.

“What… is your purpose here?” It finally inquired. Clearly it was intelligent enough to know that if Ganondorf had wanted pure conquest, then he would have brought a full army. It meant that the Morthagi were at least curious about this strange man approaching them so brazenly.

”An alliance.” Ganondorf replied bluntly, ”I intend to wipe out the bandit hordes plaguing the region, and to do this I require cooperation from the neighboring tribes and factions… yours included.”

Another pause. Another moment of consideration. Whether the Butler was thinking and calculating on its own or if it was somehow communicating with the entire collective at the same time, Ganondorf couldn’t tell. Finally it spoke again, “And what… does the Morthagi gain from this… proposal?”

Of course, Ganondorf could have been brutish and simply threatened them into submission. But the fact that they were even willing to ask this meant that they were at least open to the idea. Which meant he could instead play the role of negotiator rather than conqueror. And thankfully he already knew a thing or two about this tribe thanks to what Nabooru’s intel had suggested. ”You use… parts… from the slain order to construct yourselves, do you not?” Ganondorf asked, not continuing until he got a nod of confirmation from the Butler. ”Then my terms are simple. You fight on our side, do not target the Gerudo Tribe nor their allies. And you are welcome to any of the bandits you slay to harvest for your… parts.”

Another pause. This one was especially lengthy. Clearly the Marthagi were calculating and weighing the options. Ganondorf even began to tense a bit as he wondered if this negotiation was about to fall through. But finally, after what felt like an eternally long pause, the Butler finally delivered the Morthagi’s deliberation. “These parameters are… acceptable.”

Ganondorf exhaled and let himself relax a bit. For the briefest of moments he was worried he may have started another war. Almost. But instead his gambit had paid off and now the Gerudo had a third ally in their war against the bandit hordes. For the rest of that day, the Warlord explained that the Konoc and Lizalfos were already work fortifying their settlements into full garrisons and suggested that the Morthagi begin doing the same with their facilities. Communications and supply lines could then be established between the garrisons so that they could withstand any bandit raid that challenged them.

But it was toward the end of the day that Ganondorf received the most interesting bit of news. A message reached him from Nabooru. According to her scouting party, they found what they believed was the bandit horde’s stronghold. The place from which they were launching all their raids and then retreating back into. And as it turned out, it was a place that was most familiar to the likes of Ganondorf and Nabooru. Gerudo Fortress, series of sandstone buildings connected by a network of tunnels. The Gerudo Tribe used to inhabit them long ago back when they were still bandits themselves and before Gerudo Town was established. This, Ganondorf immediately decided, could not be allowed to stand. That fortress traditionally belonged to the Gerudo, and the Warlord was determined to eradicate the bandits occupying it now in order to commandeer it once again for the Gerudo Tribe’s purposes. And now that he had established alliances with three of the tribes neighboring Gerudo Town, he was confident he could retake it.



The sun slowly rose in the east as the desert’s cold night gradually began to give way to a warm morning. Its orange glow cascaded over the dunes as it slowly became more yellow. With the sun’s rise, a small army was gathering near a specified rallying point. Made up of creatures from the Konoc, Lizalfos, and Morathagi, they were gathered under a banner that was not their own - but of Gerudo Town and the Gerudo Tribe that governed it. Among this motley army stood Ganondorf, his armor fitted and weapons prepared and ready for battle. Yesterday, though mostly uneventful, had sowed the seeds for the current scene unfolding as the Warlord looked across the dune to the desert canyon walls, where he knew the old Gerudo’s Fortress was tucked away. It had some additions that he didn’t recognize, such as an increased number of barricades and a gate that protected its main front perimeter. But beyond this, it still mostly looked like the same Gerudo’s Fortress he remembered. And that would be his greatest advantage here. His knowledge of the Fortress’ layout that its current occupants did not know he possessed.

Ganondorf inhaled calmly as he recalled the conversations he had had the day prior.

---

“You want to do what?” Nabooru had asked, full of skepticism and incredulity. This only elicited a smirk from the Gerudo voe.

”You heard me.” Ganondorf had replied, almost a taunt. ”You wouldn’t have given me that intel if you weren’t intending for me to do something with it. You want to retake that Fortress as much as I do. Admit it.”

“Fine, let’s pretend - for the sake of argument - that I’m willing to go along with this.” Nabooru had said, trying to remain incredulous despite a momentary flicker of relenting crossing her expression ever so briefly. “What’s your plan? Throw wave after wave of the tribes against them? That seems hardly effective. And you know as well as I do how easy it is to hole up and hold out in there.”

”My plan involves the tunnel network that connects the sections of the fortress together.” Ganondord told her. ”If memory serves, they were also designed with an escape route in mind. Which means…” He trailed off, expecting her to be able to finish the thought herself.

“...It could be used as a way in.” Nabooru admitted, the wheels beginning to turn in her head as well. “So then we, what, sneak a group in through that tunnel network and they get the gates open for the forces on the outside?” She asked with a raised eyebrow. “Sounds good in theory, but what if they have the tunnels guarded?”

At this point Ganondorf’s smirk became a full fledged wicked smile. ”Oh I’m going to make sure they’re far too busy to be able to spare men for that task.”

“You… you’re going to distract them by casting yourself as the decoy?” Nabooru furrowed her brow in thought before shaking her head. “You’re insane, do you know that?”

”I’ll make sure their focus is on me. And since you’re the only other one here who knows the layout of the Fortress as well as I do, that means I’ll need you to guide the infiltration team through the tunnel network.”

Finally, Nabooru offers a curt nod. “Fine.”

---

Back in the present, Ganondorf opened his eyes and raised an arm. By now Nabooru and her unit will have reached their entry point. And that meant that it was now up to Ganondorf to signal the start of battle. He closed his hand into a fist, then lowered his arm to point forward as a signal for the march to begin. His forces began to take their positions in a formation that allowed them close in on the narrow entrance to the canyon alcove where the Fortress was located.

Meanwhile, within Gerudo's Fortress, the bandits had spotted the approaching invaders. One of the watchmen took off running into one of the many sandstone buildings. Inside he approached their leader, a giant of a man who sat in a chair like a king on a throne. Nearby two massive greatswords were stabbed into the ground, like a testament of the man’s monstrous strength. “So, the man who’s been putting up a fight has come knocking has he? Fine then, let’s see just what this would-be commander is made of.”

Outside, Ganondorf gave his first command. When he did, the Morthagi among his forces produced a number of Sommelier and Weldlings that moved to approach the barricades. The Sommelier used their pump-like bodies to shoot sprays of acid to damage the fortifications, while the Weldlings produced searing flames from their oven-like maws for the same purpose. The Lizalfos readied bows and throwing-spears to take ranged shots at defenders attempting to attack the Morthagi from behind their barricades. Even if the projectile weapons couldn’t always hit their mark, they were a good way to make defending bandits think twice about moving out of the safety of their positions to take shots.

Twinblade, kept informed of the activity outside, merely scoffed. “He intends to burn his way in? I thought as much. But he’ll never flush us out from the tunnels.” Twinblade’s confidence remained in place. He wasn’t foolish enough to send any men out to meet the invaders, but he did call for some reinforcements from within the tunnel network to join the defenders at the wall.

And for Nabooru, whose unit had made it into the tunnel network from the intended escape route, this was a crucial point to take advantage of. Guards within the tunnel being sent out to aid the defense meant fewer and thinner patrols - perfect conditions for sneaking through undetected.

At this point the battle was a waiting game. Keep the feigned pressure going to draw as many patrols out of the tunnel as possible to make it easier for Nabooru to reach the control mechanism for the gate. And right now Ganondorf could only think of one way to increase the pressure. After some thought and deliberation, held out his left hand and summoned his trident to it. He signaled his forces to hold their current positions while he himself made a break for the barricades and the Morthagi currently attacking it. Bandit archers took their shots at him, but between the swift movements of his trident and the Lizalfos concentrating their fire on covering him, Ganondorf made it to the battle lines none the worse for wear. He walked right into the flames of a Morthagi Weldling, unharmed and freshly empowered by his Flash Fire ability before he launched himself up and over a sagging section of barricades with his Bullet Jump ability.

Ganondorf landed with a crash on the other side, the look on his face inviting anyone brave enough to step forward and take him on. And he got plenty of response, when more bandits began to pour from the doors of the inner fortress to charge at him. The Warlord readied his trident and met them head on. Swift, sweeping attacks with the shaft of his weapon disoriented opponents and knocked them into positions that clumped them together for him to run through with a plunging thrust. When a group managed to circle around him, he threw his weapon in a manner that made it spin around him in a circular arc to dispatch his would-be attackers in a single swoop. And then… he finally emerged.

Twinblade - self-proclaimed band king - stepped out of the building he had been inside of. He had to duck in order to fit himself through due to his height and imposing figure. A pair of giant swords were gripped in his hands, too heavy for any normal man to lift one-handed, let alone wield. But for him, it was child’s play. “Got impatient and stormed in yourself? You’re an even bigger fool than I thought if you think you’re going to leave here alive.”

”Am I?” Ganondorf said back as each hulking man sized the other one up. ”Or maybe my infiltration party finally moved into place?”

Those words dropped onto Twinblade like a bombshell. “What do you-?” But he got his answer a moment after that. Nabooru’s unit activated the mechanisms for the gate, allowing it to creak and rise open before they sabotaged them so that the gate could not be closed again. And as if on cue, the surviving Sommeliers and Weldlngs finished burning openings in the barricades as well. That allowed the Lizalfos and remaining Morthagi to come in like a flood behind where Ganondorf stood.

”Ha! Ha! Ha!” Ganondorf laughed, sounding increasingly like a megalomaniac who was enjoying the pure conquest. ”The Gerudo Tribe built this place you fool, and dug those tunnels. Did you really think we were incapable of slipping inside?” Pandemonium began to erupt around them as Gerudo, Lizalfos, and Morthagi engaged with Twinblade’s remaining bandits. Remaining just outside the gates, the Konoc began to intensify their song to invigorate any and all of their allies who could hear it over the sounds of battle.

But Twinblade refused to be intimidated. He focused a determined glare at Ganondorf. “I’ll end you myself, and your little alliance will crumble without you at its head.” He declared as he brandished his giant swords.



Ganondorf dismissed his trident with a wisp of dark magic. Then he reached up behind and drew his own twin greatswords from their scabbards and brandished them. Both men appeared to circle one another for a moment, a clear calm before the storm. And that storm struck hard when they both lunged for one another at the same time. Each made sweeping swings of their blades which clashed and then their weapons momentarily locked long enough for them to lock eyes before each was pushed back by the immense strength of the other.

Blades swung and clashed with mighty and powerful metallic clangs. The two brutish men lunged at one another again and again, seemingly an even match for one another. Occasionally a combatant from either side would attempt to sneak in an attack at the opposing commander only to be swatted away. But Ganondorf did have access to something that Twinblade did not, and he was not above using it to give himself the edge.

After one of their several evenly matched clashes, Ganondorf changed things up a bit and summoned one of his strikers. The cybernetic dinosaur - Riptor - charged the bandit king and pounced on him with her Talon Rake. It was fast enough to get through before he could move a blade to block it, however he was bulky enough to shrug off most of the damage. But what this did do was momentarily distract him enough for Ganondorf to take advantage and get in a good slice on the bandit’s bare shoulders with one of his greatswords. And then the two were back at it again with another even clash of blades.

And then Ganondorf mixed up his strategy yet again. This time he summoned his other striker - the reploid Blast Hornet - who appeared behind Twinblade’s flank where he wasn’t immediately noticed. And then while Ganondorf and Twinblade clashed, Blast Hornet locked onto the bandit king and fired off a volley of three seeking bee drones three times in a row before disappearing. Twinblade’s attention was too focused on Ganondorf and the Search Attack successfully caught him in the back, giving Ganondorf enough edge to push him back off of his footing.

Ganondorf pressed the attack while he had Twinblade on the back foot. Twinblade was able to dig in his heels and fend off Ganondorf’s relentless attacks right up until Ganondorf changed up his tactics a third time. This time he surprised Twinblade when he momentarily stabbed one of his weapons blade first into the ground next to him just before he locked his remaining weapon with the bandit’s own swords. With Twinblade on the back foot, it gave Ganondorf enough of an advantage to momentarily overpower the bandit and throw him back a step before suddenly following through with a strong Gerudo Dragon uppercut with his free hand that caught Twinblade’s jaw and sent him staggering a bit further back.

While Twinblade was staggered, Ganondorf grabbed the sword he’d left in the ground and then channeled his Warframe energy to consecrate the ground where the bandit kind was and turn it into Hallowed Ground. Suddenly Twinblade found himself suffering a constant stream of Radiation damage as Ganondorf pressed further, unwilling to give the bandit king any room to breathe. And while fatigue began to settle in for both men, it did so more for the battered and burned Twinblade. They may have been evenly matched at the start of this, but it was beginning to become clear who was going to emerge victorious.

”Long live the King.” Ganondorf said in a low voice as he brought his blades down in an x-shape onto the weakened Twinblade. With that, that bandit had become too wounded to get back on his feat, and thus his fate was sealed. In another life, against another more… Heroic opponent, the bandit king might well have been spared. But Ganondorf was no such Hero. And the Warlord brought his blade to the bandit’s neck and ended his life once and for all. That sent the right message to the surviving bandits who turned tail and fled into the desert dunes. Victory belonged to the tribe that day.

And while the Morthagi had already set about harvesting parts from the fallen bandits and some of the Lizalfos and Konoc had begun collecting their spirits in glass battles as they’d been doing for the previous engagements, Ganondorf looked at the spirit produced by the fallen Twinblade. He picked it up and bottled it as usual, but instead of sending it back to the Avenger with the rest he kept it on himself for the time being. Such a spirit would be wasted being fed to Vullgrim, so the warlord decided he wanted to do something with it instead.

Unfortunately, harvesting on the part of the Morthagi reduced the number of spirits that were safely bottled before fading away - resulting in only 15 to be sent back to the Avenger.

“Ganondorf.” It was Nabooru, looking tired and bloody - though not her own blood he wagered. “You should see this.”

Ganondorf followed her into the section Twinblade had come out of. Instead was where he had been coordinating the bandit raids. Nothing here seemed like anything that would be out of the ordinary. But Nabooru did point some particular parchments on one of the nearby desks and said, “Seems as though that bandit was communicating with a Consul.”

That was enough to get Ganondorf’s attention. He looked over the parchments with curiosity. ”So he was.” Sure enough, Twinblade had indeed been in communications with one of the Consuls. But it was the specific Consul that was most curious - Consul H. Wasn’t he the one that was reportedly defeated at Alcamoth? This meant he was still very much alive and active. Wouldn’t be good news for the rest of the Seekers and Lost Numbers to hear, but at least this intel meant that H wouldn’t be able to hide behind his alleged death any longer.

And speaking of Consuls… ”Wasn’t Consul X supposed to visit today?” Ganondorf asked Nabooru.

“Yes. And she says that after this visit it will be some time before she is able to come back again. Maybe your allies’ handiwork, I hope?”

”I would hope so.” Ganondorf responded. ”I’m heading back to Gerudo Town. We’ll break the spell on Lady Riju once the Consul has left.”

---

After spending the entire morning retaking Gerudo’s Fortress, Ganondorf then spent a chunk of the afternoon making the trek back to Gerudo Town. By the time he approached the town gates, it was already 4:30 PM. He wasn’t sure how much time remained before the meeting ended, so he wasted no time in finding a place he could stay in where his presence wouldn’t be detected. And the best place Ganondorf could imagine was the Gerudo Town Secret Club.

It was a shop he’d been to once before, and its existence was only known to its members. And since Ganondorf was fairly sure Consul X was not a member, he was confident he could lay low there until he could confirm the Consul’s departure. From here, it was simply a waiting game. And before too much longer, Ganondorf could hear small commotion outside. When he carefully peered through the slit on the door, he could see that it was because of the Consul leaving the palace in order to take her leave.

The Consul herself didn’t look like much, appearance-wise. She had a smaller-than-average adult female build. She wore pinkish armor and a helmet fashioned after a large ornate mask with big, rectangular wings seemingly protruding from the side. She didn’t look like she was saying much, and what little Ganondorf could hear sounded withdrawn and almost… sarcastic? She didn’t exactly exude the aura of someone taking pride in their work, or even enjoying it for that matter. He couldn’t help but wonder why, if she seemingly disliked the job of a Consul, did she even agree to be one in the first place. Then again, based on everything S had said, it sounded like many members of Moebius weren’t necessarily there because they wanted it.

Well, whatever story there was behind Consul X, it didn’t change the fact that she was Moebius. And that made her his enemy. Sooner or later, he’d be dealing with her… one way or another.

Once it was certain that the Consul had left and was gone from Gerudo Town, Ganondorf emerged from the Secret Club entrance and back onto the streets of the desert town. Now there was only one item remaining on his agenda - Riju. And to do that, he began making his way toward the palace.

---

In the Gerudo Town Palace, Ganondorf had a debriefing meeting with Lady Riju - Nabooru and Bulliara were present as well. This time the meeting wasn’t held as an audience in the throne room, but instead down in the war room. This had been Nabooru and Bulliara’s doing, managing to convince the chief to hold the meeting somewhere where they could free her from the spell without it drawing too much attention.

“So you’ve really taken it?” Lady Riju asked.

”Indeed.” Ganondorf reported. ”Gerudo’s Fortress is ours once again. As it should be.”

“And combined with the garrisons we’ve established among our allies,” Nabooru added, “our territory can stay more secure than ever.”

“Good, good. Excellent, even.” Riju replied. “You broke the stalemate and gave us control of the desert, just as you said you would. You have my thanks, Ganondorf.”

”Of course.” Ganondorf said with a short bow of his head. ”The safety and prosperity of our people are, as always, my goal. Now, if I may settle one more matter of business?”

Lady Riju was a bit surprised. “What business would that- HEY!” She was cut off when Nabooru and Bulliara moved to grab a hold of the young chieftain and restrain her. “I thought you said the matter of the throne could wait?! What is the meaning of this?”

”This has nothing to do with the throne, my Lady. It will all make sense momentarily.” Ganondorf said even as he picked up a dagger from the table and plunged it into Riju’s side, not in a place where it would be fatal, but it would weaken her enough. After this, Nabooru and Bulliara released their hold, and it was Bulliara who was quick to produce a Friend Heart that she then used on the chief.

Riju gasped for breath as her stab wound was immediately healed completely. “What… What is the meaning of this? What did you…?”

“You were under a spell, Lady Riju.” Bulliara said. “We all were. And now you’ve been freed from it.”

With that done, Ganondorf could go about explaining Galeem and finally the true nature of Moebius. Lady Riju listened, confused but the wheels started turning as she did. “So the Consuls really do just use us playthings? Despicable!”

Now Ganondorf had to explain the real nature about what he learned from S. He left out some of the things that would sound too unbelievable. But he was able to get across that everyone in this room had been directly tied to the Flame Clocks while under Galeem’s spell. And that only someone born outside of that system they created could be able to destroy the Clocks.

“So because we all were tied to one of those Flame Clocks, none of us can damage them? Even you?” Riju asked Ganondorf.

”Not even with the full power of the Triforce.” Ganondorf confirmed, looking like he was still seething about this particular fact. ”But someone who was born without being connected to one? They would have the power to break them.”

“But where could we find such a person?” Riju questioned. “Even if a vai and voe were to conceive a child, well, it would still just be a child and incapable of destroying one.”

”Consul S told me of one other way.” Ganondorf said. ”A power he called ‘Interlink’. He said it can be done by two people such as us, but only if they have built up enough trust and rapport with another.”

Nabooru had to stifle a laugh. “I can’t believe the irony.” She commented. “The one power you can use to destroy those Clocks, and it requires something you of all people are incapable of doing.”

”It is what it is.” Ganondorf answered, unamused. ”I care not who achieves the power and does the deed, so long as it gets done - I’ll be satisfied.”

“This is… a lot to process.” Lady Riju said. “But progress is progress, so I won’t complain.”

”One more thing.” Ganondorf said. ”The bandit was communicating with Consul H. He is someone my allies thought had been defeated over a week ago when he attacked their previous base of operations. But now that I’ve discovered that he still lives, I need to return to my company and make sure that information reaches them.”

“So then you’re taking your leave again, I take it?” Riju asked.

”I’m afraid so.”

“Well then, you’ve done plenty for us already.” Riju said. “So don’t let me keep you here any longer than you need to be.”

”Keep that linkpearl handy.” Ganondorf advised. ”And I’ll keep you informed on the matter of the Consuls through it.”

“Very good. Farewell, Ganondorf.” Lady Riju said as she adjourned the meeting.

Once free of the debriefing, Ganondorf could only make his way back outside of Town. He made his way back to the Oasis, the same area his hellpod had originally dropped him off. Once there, he strapped his Fulton onto his back and then ripped the cord. After that? The usual nausea and blackness that accompanied being yanked up into the sky.

It was already very late at night by the time Ganondorf’s pickup had completed. When he came to, he found himself alone in Deployment, save for the single Lost Number who had retrieved him. He saw no one else, Seeker or Lost Number alike. But given the late hour it was likely everyone had retired for the night already. And honestly, he was glad to do so himself. After conducting a morning-long siege battle and then trekking across the desert two separate times, the warlord was quite tired. The intel he brought with him about Consul H could wait until the morning.

And so, the Gerudo took the lift up to the Living Quarters and retired to the room that he shared with Therion. Whether the thief had already gone to sleep or not, Ganondorf was too tired to check. Instead he went straight to bed and let himself drift off to sleep.

Grabbing a bit of grub before he went to bed, Roland made his way to his room and flopped on the bed. Even while sleeping, he'd keep his gloves on just in case something happened. There wasn't much of a reason to sleep with his mask on though, even though he was used to it when he worked as a fixer.

Roland, once he got to sleep, had a bad dream much like he usually did. While his time in the library had helped him resolve some of these issues, he still had them from time to time. A nightmare about a collapsed house, a destroyed city block, and a musical piano performance by a multi armed man turning anyone who heard the songs into the fleshy keys of his piano. A piano Roland would be too late to stop, and a fight against that massive, massive instrument...

But as the dream went on, things started to catch fire. At first it looked like it was just a part of the dream, the piano starting to burn as its conductor was being hacked apart, but soon the fire started to burn the background of the dream itself, almost like it was a fire burning on a film strip. This was only vaguely noticed by Roland, as you don't really remember the specifics of a dream, just the broad strokes if anything. But as the dream's reel burned in scarlet fire, it finally snapped and Roland was left in a dreamless state, settling his real world self and allowing him to get a bit of decent sleep, and Grimm had managed to claim another nightmare for his ritual.

As Zenkichi and Akane’s games settled down, Zenkichi spent some time making sure Sandalphon got looked over by the ship’s doctors. They ultimately decided upon sedating her to get her to rest, which resulted in Zenkichi having to carry her back to her quarters and tucking her in, before meandering around the ship for a bit. Nervous energy was worming its way through the eldest Phantom Thief, and after a while, and once it was well and truly late, he found himself in the training room. He hadn’t taken much time to get used to his various new weapons, so he figured he could burn up some of that nervous energy and familiarize himself with his arsenal.

His original Claymore, the Closing Statement, the Hero Sword, the Greatsword Sandalphon had purchased for him (And what a sword it was!, the Etiquette left behind by that ghost monster, and…something else. He felt…something tugging at him ever since he’d spoken with Sandalphon earlier. Rather than rush into something new, he did some basic combos with each weapon he had, getting the hang of them. The Greatsword and the Closing Statement were heavier and slower weapons, though the former was so large that it could basically be used as a shield. The latter, on the other hand, was awkwardly weighted and lacked the length to properly guard him like the Greatsword did.

His Claymore was most familiar with him, of course, though something about the Hero Sword spoke to him. Part of that was definitely the kindred spirit he felt with Konoe, loathe as part of him was to admit it. They weren’t too terribly alike, though both men had had their ideals warped and corrupted by an unjust world. Zenkichi…just hadn’t fallen as far, he supposed.

The Etiquette…barely counted. It was an umbrella, for crying out loud! It was too small, too light, to truly fit him as a weapon. Maybe he’d have to try and see if it worked better for somebody else, or pull it out as a gag weapon like in video games. By that logic, it might just be the most powerful weapon he had, but as he was jokingly musing on that, the pull grew stronger.

That thing. It called to him from within. It felt new, and yet…so familiar. A weapon from one of his Spirits? It was a weapon, that much was certain. It felt like a semi-filled void in that subconscious space that Valjean stored his weapons in. Dismissing the Etiquette and reaching his hand out, he focused…and a in his outstretched hand, a sword appeared. ”There you are…Ragnell. Wait, how did I know that name? What the heck?!”” Somewhat startled, Zenkichi paused and took a deep breath. Look at the thing, man!

It was beautiful, to say the least. He could feel the power from it, but also a blessing. He felt tougher. He felt…right. Giving Ragnell a few test swings, Zenkichi smiled. Oh yeah, that fit right in with his other swords. Giving a few test swings, he smiled. Well-balanced, not too heavy, but certainly not lightweight. It did some work on the dummy, too. Though he got the feeling that wasn’t all it could do. Taking a few steps back, Zenkichi gave the sword a swing from a distance, aiming at the dummy. He did not expect the explosion that came from it, and he jumped back in shock, before relaxing and letting out a full-belly laugh. ”Holy crap that was awesome!” Giving it a few more goes, Zenkichi whooped and laughed at the magical blasts that he wrought with Ragnell, before letting out a deep yawn. ”Man, that thing’s awesome. But it’s getting pretty late.”

Cleaning up what he could from the mess he’d made, Zenkichi retired back to his shared room with Akane, his daughter already fast asleep. He settled into his own bunk, joining her a few minutes later.

The moment Roxas’s friend heart made contact with Edelgard, she was slammed with memories of Fodlan. Her life flashed before her eyes, from the torture she endured under Those Who Slither in the Dark, to the years of war she had plagued her beloved land with for the sake of its future. Memories of her teacher, her friends, of a Fodlan finally united with the totalitarian reign of the Church of Seiros destroyed.

All gone. Torn away for whatever sick, twisted game she was being used as a pawn in. Bile burned in the back of her throat as Edelgard forced herself to her feet, a dark look in her eyes as she witnessed Absalom’s defeat. How much time had she spent fighting somebody else’s war? Being used in a fight not her own? Angels? Demons?! What dark magic had taken her mind that she couldn’t see how preposterous the world around her had become?

Perhaps more unsettling than that were the eyes of the celebrating angels around her. She had almost balked at the violent red glow in the eyes of one of her Black Eagles. And wasn’t that such a sick joke as well? Enough of her had remained to name these faceless hordes of monsters after her class? Her friends?! Palutena’s voice cut through the celebrations, and it took almost all of Edelgard’s resolve not to scream at the disembodied voice that had used her. Did Lady-did Palutena even know? Was she another victim of whatever was happening, or the puppetmaster? And why did these newcomers, these so-called Seekers all lack that same ominous glow in their eyes?

She had to know more. The man who had appeared from the sky offered an array of some sort of backpack to the Seekers, telling them that it was their way back to the ‘Avenger’. She could only assume that was their ship. Was it what had blown away the clouds earlier? The unseen force that had worried her so? Before she approached them, however, she went to where Absalom had fallen, plucking the Source of Corruption’s Spirit from its final resting place. ”Foul demon. Perhaps something could be made of you.”

”Seekers of Light!” She cried out, striding towards the others. ”Thank you for your assistance. Must you leave so soon?”

”The Avenger probably shouldn’t stick around any one place for very long” Midna stepped forward to inform her somewhat unhelpfully.

”and the Avenger is…” Edward, who had somehow both returned from being AWOL and was among the Skeer’s number given his lack of glowing eyes, asked as he followed after her.

”An invisible flying ship, which we get to by strapping these to ourselves” the princess replied, a touch cryptically as she portaled in and then tossed a fulton device at each of the newly recruited humans.

”and these will do that how…?” Edward again began to ask, only for Midna to give an incredibly quick crash course in how to strap one of the devices to herself with a ”like this” before adding that they should pull a specific cord ”like this” and then promptly shooting up skywards.

”Ah. Well.” the dreadnought said as they both watched her, and a few of the other seekers, blasting off into the air, before glancing back at his fellow freshly unstoried compatriot and saying, not without sympathy, ”Welcome to, roughly, the last half hour or so of my life.”

Edelgard’s eyes had grown to the size of saucers in trying to contemplate the sheer density of the information she had been given. As one of the Black Eagle angels approached to offer Edelgard a hand in returning to Skyworld, she shook her head. ”Inform Lady Palutena that, for the time being, I must accompany the Seekers. She will understand, I’m certain.” The Feathershield was surprised, to say the least, but nonetheless saluted and returned to the others.

”I suppose…shall we?” Edelgard asked confusedly, her fulton now ‘equipped.’

”Answers lay skyward it seems” Edward agreed as he too strapped in, before adding that ”And yes, she will. Apparently she is free from… the red light as well.”

Edelgard’s eyes narrowed at Edward’s revelation regarding Palutena, but after a moment she shook her head. He said ‘free’, implying that she had, at some point, been under the same influence they all apparently had. ”I see. Then, let us not tarry any further.”

”Yes I suppose n-” Edward began, as he moved to tug at the cord of the now secured device, only for his last word to be drawn out into a ”oooooooooooooot” as he was rapidly whisked away skywards

---

The first fultoning unsurprisingly did a number on the pair of fresh recruits, and so Eleison had to wait a fair little bit before delivering his spiel, but deliver it he did nonetheless. It, unfortunately, did not really cover the specifics that Edelgard might have wanted.

Indeed, Eleison’s speech was blatantly not intended for the newcomers among them, but given that the person who would have normally greeted them was apparently otherwise indisposed, she supposed it was understandable. Still, Edelgard was very confused, and voiced that confusion. ”Who are the Lost Numbers? And what is this…place? You said the Avenger was your ship, but this is unlike any ship I could even begin to imagine.” Edelgard half-asked, half-demanded the Seekers around her.

”Indeed. The sheer mass it must in order to have had to be able to cause that disturbance, how in the world does it work?” Edward asked, equally if not more awed by the machine they were now in thanks to his magitech background.

The first round of questions stopped Eleison mid-way through leaving, freezing him in place as he realized and then considered the newcomers’ predicament. While the others exchanged words, the gears in his head turned, and after a moment he turned back to them with his hands clasped. “Forgive me. You must be new. I’m not really an ambassador here; that typically falls to Ms. Lockheart. But as the resident healer, I can definitely recommend that you all keep calm, have a deep breath, and take it slow.” He elongated the last handful of words to make the point, his palms held out in a placating manner. “I know this answer may be…unsatisfying. But there is simply too much information to take in all at once, and to be honest, you don’t need to know everything. If you’ve just been freed, then coping with the revelation is enough to deal with for a while. Stuff like ‘the Lost Numbers’ and ‘ship engines’ can wait. For now, focus on recuperation and acclimatization. Find somewhere to store your things, get some food and water, and relax.”

”Seconded. There’s lots of technical specifics, but those can wait. The lost numbers are friends, the ship works, that’s all that matters right now” Minda agreed before adding ”We'll find you rooms and… well they are shared and split by gender so that might be a complication” and then quickly conversing with Eleison to confirm that, unsurprisingly, the other team had also picked up newbies.

”Well I’m, what’s the word they used, nocturnal anyway so I can sort this out. Well. Me and-” she glanced up at the ceiling for some reason and asked ”Hope?” which surprisingly did get an answer of “yes?” from a little box mounted on one of the walls.

”Can you get the other new arrivals to group up in the Spirit chamber? Might as well make use of what Edward’s collected and answer some questions while I’m at it” she again asked, and the source-less voice replied that she could indeed do that.

”Can we at least have an answer to who that is?” Edward asked.

”Hope… controls the ship? But also is the ship. But also isn’t. Its complicated as most things are” she began, before turning and motion for them to ”walk and talk with me and I’ll give you the basics” which she did indeed do, but only so much as she could fit in the trip to the spirit chamber. The basics of Galeem, the guardians, and the Consuls were outlined, but the more, well, mind shattering stuff was left out for the sake of not having to repeat herself.

Ironically, Edelgard was less confused about an artificial intelligence than she was about the ship itself. ”So, Hope is like a golem? Albeit significantly more intelligent.” She attempted to clarify for herself and Edward.

”What are… oh like Edward’s spear constructs? Hmmm. No. Or. Ok. First, imagine one of those that was a person. We have a few people who are like that. But instead of stopping there, then remove the bit that is a person from the Golem, and make it so that it can instead be attached too less smart Golems in order to control them” she tried, having asked and only somewhat understood how it had worked, before adding the key snarl which was ”also there’s no magic involved in this process at all. Or at least no mana anyway”

”Technology running entirely magic-less fuel source?” Edward asked, and upon receiving a nod looked perhaps the most animated either of them had ever seen him as he described this as ”Fascinating. So anyone could make something like her, no spark of sorcery necessary? Assuming you did all the requisite learning of course. But still it opens up the field to so many more possible innovators and creators who would have previously been held back by their inability to touch the flows of magic. What a world of wonders they’d be able to create”

Edelgard, knowing what she did of Fodlan’s history, was more skeptical, though not entirely so. ”Or a world of horrors.” She sighed. ”Arrows capable of destroying cities, launched from miles away. Or, if one were to be more optimistic, carriages that did not require horses and could move much faster. My world contained the former, ancient weapons created by a people who were driven into hiding by our most revered goddess’s own daughter, a dragon masquerading as a woman.” Venom unlike the other two had heard before, even in battle against the Corrupted, seeped into Edelgard’s voice, before she paused and shook her head.

”My apologies. I am still…reconciling my recollection of my past. I suppose it is…refreshing…to see the good that can be done without the influence of gods and charlatans.”

”I’ve seen both in this mixed up world we’re in.” Minda replied evenly, before laying down her own philosophy ”Like all power, it's entirely about how you use it that decides if it makes dreams or nightmares come true.”

As they spoke, Hope trawled through the ship’s security network, tracking down the other new Seekers, and directed them to the princess’ impromptu late night seminar.

---

Hope’s disembodied voice found Grimm wandering the Avenger’s halls, and though the phantom entity alarmed him at first, the ship’s AI worked fast to demystify itself in order to deliver its message. In the course of his conversation with Roland, he’d gotten an introduction to spirits, but it never hurt to have more information. Plus, he would have plenty of time to go about his business for the night afterword. Thus Grimm chose to heed Hope’s summons, and before long the Troupe Master made his presence known among the mystic mechanisms of the Spirit Chamber.

Once she was fairly sure everyone had made their way to the spirit chamber, the twilight princess launched into a little spiel, which she presented from a seat atop one of the consoles in the room.

”Alright my little cuccos, this right here is where power drawn from spirits, you know those little motes everyone killed here turns into, is found” she declared, before making a few gestures at the various surrounding machines and artifacts.

”First things first, the two main draws of this room are the stabilizer” she directed a large shadow hand finger at the chamber at the center of the room, before pointing another at the rather horrible looking hat which was sat on a somewhat out of place table and called it ”this horrible looking hat” due to them not knowing its official designation as the ‘symbol of avarice’.

”The hat will make it so that any spirits you crush, which creates items if you aren't aware, will result in better outcomes. You are way more likely to get actual equipment or usable items instead of things that might be able to be made into them” she informed them, before pointing to a mid sized pot sitting next to the hat and adding ”Oh and in tandem with that, this thing here will transfer any passive enchantments from an item melted down in to you permanently. Like that shield Edward has for example”

She pointed out the bulwark strapped to the Dreadnaught’s arm and explained that ”if he put that in the pot, then the passive boosts to… I think it’s reflexes mostly… will go to him without him having to keep wearing it”

”Now, chamber meanwhile, that helps with fusion.” she added, before doing a quick segway to how that worked, saying ”Head for skills, talents, and inactive magics, heart for active abilities. To put it simply, if you have a dragon and want to breathe fire, heart, if you want to know how to fight like one, head.”

Then she got back to the point, which was ”this stabilizer chamber can reduce the way fusing tends to turn you into a mix and match mess. Do it in here and the outcomes will be a lot more consistent and nice to look at” before pointing at a strange gismo that Mis Fortune had combine a cloudy sphere with and explained that ”that works very nicely with this thing, which can pop out all the spirits in you, so you can then use them again in the stabilizer again, or ditch ones that weren't working for you. So don’t worry too much about fusing if you need it for the moment, you can always modify yourself again back here at base”

”Finally there’s apparently some entity called Vulgrim who’ll trade spirits for secrets, but I’ll be honest I haven't made use of his services yet, so you’ll have to ask someone who has if he’s actually worth tossing away potential power for” she added at last, before opening the floor for general questions, namely ”and that’s all that. I think Edward had some spirits on hand if people want to check them out, and if not, I can answer any questions you have”

The Dreadnought did indeed have some spirits on him, specifically one of every feather (damningly in his eyes) and a number of their corrupted equivalents, plus golems and false angels, most notably 3 Enraptured.

”It might be prudent to give, as examples, that I was once entirely human but, after fusing with both of these” Edward pointed to a feather shield and bow, ”have gained the wings you now see me sport. Alongside gaining this shield from a feather sword well. As well as, finally, this ‘striker’ from a feather staff” he added, pointing out the relevant angels and then summoning a copy of the feather staff for a few moments to show off that ability.

”Right. Those. Can’t get them any more due to fusion downsides, but you get those by requesting they serve you, you should only have two max if you value your lifespan, and you can store excess in that device over there” the princess added, pointing out the final fusion relevant artifact as she did so.

”Now then. Questions?”

Edelgard shook her head. She had nothing, for the moment at least. Grimm said nothing, questioning or otherwise.

”While this all is fascinating, truly it is good to know its here, I do believe such body altering decisions might be most wisely left til we are rested of mind?”

”Right right. The other reason I thought to have this little meeting is that you all need rooms. And roommates” Minda replied before explaining that simply with ”Ships low on space, so its two people per room, generally gender segregated.”

Edelgard blinked a few times. ”I would certainly hope so!”

”Well it does narrow down your options a bit doesn't it?” Midna replied with a bit of a bite in her smile, mainly because she was aware of just how interesting some of Edelgard’s roster of possible roommates was.

Moving on from that matter, Edelgard though on the Spirits she’d collected. ”I did collect some fallen Spirits that I would like to make use of.” She informed the others, walking towards the Symbol of Avarice. ”I simply don this…thing?” She tried not to sound too disgusted, but failed to disguise the apprehension she had as she placed the Symbol on her head, immediately feeling the damage and grimacing. Quickly, she took the Spirits of Absalom and beloved, crushing them in turn.



”Well, I suppose it is fitting that I received that demon’s axe, but what is this bell…?” Edelgard regarded the trinket curiously, before shrugging. ”I get the feeling that I shouldn’t toy with it here and now. Another time, then.” She simply stated, placing it in a pouch for her Inventory, with Absolution following after. ”I can use that monster’s weapon later, as well. Better it fall into the hands of one who would use it for good. Thank you, Midna, for the knowledge. I will be sure to make good use of our fallen foes.” Edelgard added, somewhat ominously. She meant well, but…there was no way to say that without sounding a bit ominous.

”Your… ” Midna replied, only pausing for half a moment at the reminder of exactly what using the spirits of the falling really was, before letting it go again and finishing ”-welcome” before adding that ”there’s an armory too if you get things you don’t think you yourself will use but someone else might”

”I’ll have to look into that in the morning then” Edward replied, sticking to his thought about dealing with all this with a clear head, which more or less signaled the end of this little meetup, though naturally it ended with a slight stroll through the halls, one spent sorting out the sleeping arrangements, before it was time to say goodnight.

Once Ace left, Nadia made a beeline for her bed to try and settle down. After an encounter like that, though, her heart still raced, and she couldn’t pretend that nothing had happened, especially with Blazermate right there as a witness. Given the small size of these rooms, there wasn’t much chance of avoiding either her or her inevitable commentary track. Nadia wasn’t about to be ashamed of her newfound happiness, but it was still a little embarrassing that her roommate caught them red-handed like that, even if the feral acted otherwise. While Blazermate made ominously cryptic utterances about something called the internet, Nadia got to her feet to change for bed. Considering that Blazermate had signed on as her wingman way back in Limsa Lominscuttle Town, the feral thought that her friend might be a little happier for her, but she supposed that at this time of the night even the most genial gynoid could get a bit cranky.

Nadia’s quick change amounted to little more than removing her button-up and throwing on a comfortable crop top, but now that her adrenaline had begun to subside, even such a small task reminded the catgirl just how tired she really was. As romantic as it would be for that kiss to keep her up all night, it felt more like she’d pass out any second now. The hours spent swimming and catching fish in the Blue Hole were taking their toll, and between the Battle Royal Rumble and her beef with Juri, Nadia had no more fight left in her today. She couldn’t fret about tomorrow or indulge in existential angst even if she wanted to. Practically the second she hit the sack, the feral gave up the ghost and sank into a deep, velvety, dreamless sleep. In seconds, the room she shared with Blazermate was silent but for the burglar’s soft snoring.

Despite the feral’s propensity for speed, a neighbor several doors down had beaten her to slumberland by almost half an hour, sleeping so soundly that the momentary commotion in the hallway failed to rouse her whatsoever. Following her impromptu appointment with her fellow night owl Dr. Yu, with a guest appearance by Eleison since he happened to be up late, the two healers had agreed to send Sandalphon to bed early by every means at their disposal. Rather than another few hours of caffeine-induced activity, the archangel desperately needed rest, and to pick up much healthier eating habits. Since Sandalphon had already amply demonstrated that she couldn’t be trusted to take care of herself, the medics opted to make the decision for her. With Zenkichi waiting in the wings anyway to make sure his friend was alright before retiring himself, Eleison gave him instructions for the archangel to follow, then entrusted him with the task of carrying Sandalphon through the ship for a second time and laying her to rest.

So far, Sandalphon seemed to be resting well. Prior to the fusions that instilled in her an unmistakable human element, she could not ever recall having dreams, but the archangel was having one now. In her subconscious mind, she beheld visions of cobblestone streets, immaculate burgundy-tiled roofs, towering cathedrals, and red banners aflutter in the breeze. Birds sang, ordinary people bustled to and fro, and the wind whispered in the leaves. This could only be Grams, hailed by many as the greatest, fairest city-state on the face of Grastaea. Her home. Though she could logically deduce that this vision must be a dream, Sandalphon clung to it jealously. Her dream’s plot dictated that she followed a certain path, and so she did, but she lingered at every corner and conversation. Her powers of perception and recall allowed her subconscious to recreate this familiar route in painstaking detail, so real it hurt. Only now that she’d begun to truly experience her own emotions could she realize just how much she missed this place, and the people within it. This overpowering homesickness was the same feeling she felt down in Arahabaki, freshly awoken in the wake of her fusions with Pavarti and Leanne, but subsequently buried to stem the flow of unfamiliar tears. It was terribly bittersweet.

Eventually, Sandalphon found herself at the arranged place, a high-class tavern in Grams’ upper district. It was a special occasion, the celebration of yet another major operation achieved by the Apostles, and everyone was in attendance. Sandalphon looked around at each inseparable pair, studying them in turn. The brilliant but lazy Nevan, self-styled as Papa Bear, wore a mischievous grin as usual as he used an embarrassing story to tease the youngest member, the adorably self-serious Sylvan Pinon. Their pactbound archangels couldn’t help but be amused, but while the motherly Gabriel only fussed over her ‘daughter’, the studious but snarky Ramiel attempted to blunt his partner’s antics. The diminutive apostle Faris pretended to be above it all, quietly giving the others the side-eye as he snuck morsels to his pet lizard, while the immense (and immensely serious) Uriel focused on enjoying his meal. Next to them, the remarkably tall and remarkably shy Ryszarda could be counted on to try and shift the topic, while her exuberant partner angel Raphael -who stood a head shorter than the human- exacerbated the situation instead. Last of all, there was Regina. Sandalphon’s pactbound human was a small woman, standoffish, and none too social, but wise–far wiser than Sandalphon herself. Infinitely patient and capable, she was the archangel’s rock, someone Sandalphon depended on and owed everything to. She found herself unable to hold back her tears, and it wasn’t long before they washed the dream away.

Elsewhere, Goldlewis had dreams of his own, but rather than a cohesive chain of remembered events they took the form of garbled, nonsensical, and often dreadful scenes that meshed in and out of one another. Even if this cacophonous tumult of imagery meant something, it would not be remembered. At length, though, the pandemonium gave way to something that Goldlewis could consciously recognize: a familiar place that he hadn’t been to for long, and would never go to again, but would probably never forget. Deep beneath the enormous Shinra Tower in the heart of Midgar, far below even the colossal supercomputer called Arahabaki, he could see a circular arena surrounded by portals into other places, other times. This was where he and the others fought Tycoon, the Guardian of the Dystopiascape. More accurately, it was where they fought Nox and his party, with Tycoon playing the part of stage hazard. However, the rendition of the battle playing out before him looked far more bleak than he remembered. His teammates were dying, one after another. Burned, electrocuted, frozen, shot, stabbed, slashed, and dropped into the pit below, he couldn’t save any of them. Terror and despair clawed at his heart. Surrounded by the corpses of comrades he’d failed to protect, a deathblow from Nox seemed like a mercy. A just reward.

Goldlewis tossed and turned in his sleep, but outside his room, the corridor was still and quiet. For the skeleton crew of Lost Numbers keeping the Avenger aloft, this was the graveyard shift. Even the most playful children and dutiful (but unnecessary) workers had all retired for the night. At first glance, the whole place seemed completely and totally dead. But death was not always the end. Among the shuddering shadows, a solitary figure stalked the halls, literally and figuratively restless, his destination and purpose inscrutable. The intention behind his movements, however, suggested that he wasn’t merely exploring, but searching for something. In the early hours of the morning, his persistence paid off. A sudden flutter of wing heralded the arrival of the Grimmchild, and in its father’s outstretched claw it deposited an agglomeration of curious essence. It burned, but did not consume. It flickered, but it did not light. It danced, but it did not grow weary. Grimm stared at the Nightmare Flame, unblinking, then returned it to the Grimmchild and took his scion under his wing.

”Through dream I travel, at lantern’s call. To consume the flames of a kingdom’s fall.”

---

At six-thirty on the dot, a series of melodic tones began to play in all the rooms occupied by the Seekers, both new and old. The chord progressed quickly, becoming louder, faster, and more insistent, and by the fifteen-second mark only the heartiest sleepers among the heroes could possibly hope to withstand it. Then, with the alarm out of the way, the voice of the Avenger’s resident AI began to play through the intercom in order to deliver the first of many instructions the Seekers would receive today.

“Rise and shine, everyone. It is currently 6:30:20, Tuesday morning. We’re cruising at an altitude of forty thousand feet over the Land of Adventure, headed north. Estimated time of arrival at the Dead Zone is one hour, twenty-nine minutes, twenty seconds. Please report to the Bridge for a mission briefing at exactly six forty-five. Breakfast will be served afterward, and you’ll have the remainder of the time to prepare for the mission. Today we take one more step to saving the worlds!”

Nadia rolled over in bed, an incredulous expression on her face. “Already? It’s so earlyyyyy…” She sighed, sat up, and swung her legs out over the bed. “Well, guess its my fault for goin’ to bed late.” Despite wanting to sleep in, she still felt refreshed by the night’s sleep, so she hopped up to hit the showers before the morning meeting.

Compared to the catgirl, Goldlewis roused himself more deliberately. As a military man he was used to waking up early, but age didn’t make it any easier to greet the new day. Still, this old-timer wasn’t about to let it set in. He got to his feet and began his well-rehearsed ten-minute daily routine, after which he promised to be preened, presentable, and ready for duty.

The veteran arrived at the Bridge a couple minutes early. He found a handful of Seekers and Lost Numbers there already, and while the sight of Grimm in bright light took him somewhat aback, seeing Sandalphon there was hardly a surprise. There was something different about her today, though. For one, she looked much more comfortable than usual, clothed in a form-fitting black turtleneck sweater and full-length black culottes over her white boots in place of her typical formal wear. Her short silver hair was a little messy, and she looked somewhat more relaxed than usual. It was unusual. When she spotted Goldlewis she acknowledged him with a polite nod, but it did little to set the veteran at ease. The archangel he’d come to know was inflexibly selfless, never once considering her own comfort or wellbeing. This was a good change, of course, but still. Who was this and what did she do to Sandalphon…?

Over the course of the next few minutes, twenty more Seekers piled into the room, some -like Nadia- over a minute after the appointed time. The ever-punctual Goldlewis made a mental note of the time on his stopwatch when he finally clicked it, wondering whether or not to bring it up. For now, though, the floor belonged to Sandalphon.

“Good morning,” the archangel greeted everyone, conjuring a handful of screens around her with a wave of her free hand. The other held a thermos of coffee, which according to her doctors would be the only one she could have today. To her that seemed much scarier than what the Seekers had in store for today, but after this briefing the others might not agree.

“Today’s mission is an incursion into the Dead Zone formerly known as Redgraccoon City. Our objective is to find and destroy the Dead Zone’s Guardian. The location of this Guardian has been positively identified for some time, but until yesterday, our forces could not penetrate this area without extreme risk. Please allow me a brief explanation.” She paused to take a sip of coffee. “Last week an annihilation event, hereafter referred to as a ‘voidout’, was triggered in the center of the city, at the base of the demonic tree known as the Qliphoth. This voidout reduced the city to a crater, but the Qliphoth endured. Afterward, the elevated chiralium levels throughout the region gave rise to the phenomenon known as ‘timefall’. This rain has the anomalous property of rapidly aging whatever it touches, organic and inorganic matter alike. Worse still, the timefall heralds the arrival of certain supernatural entities whose nature is still not fully understood at this time. These Beached Things, or BTs for short, are invisible to the naked eye and highly responsive to sound. If able to capture and consume a living thing, the resulting matter-antimatter reaction will trigger another voidout.”

Sandalphon took a deep breath. “These factors together made it impossible to approach the Qliphoth until now. Thanks to the diligent efforts of our engineers and Bridges personnel, however, three developments have been made to enable your mission today.” She turned toward a series of tables set up against one of the walls in the room, each covered in a tarp. The portly coroner, Deadman, pulled off the first one to reveal a bunch of high-tech backpacks. “These personal shield generators, once activated, will project a bubble around your upper body. Since their barriers are energy and not matter, they are immune to the effects of timefall. However, all impacts with the barrier drain its strength, and too much damage will force a temporary shutdown. These should be considered for emergency use only.”

At her prompting, Deadman pulled the second tarp to reveal a large, star-shaped device on a pole, looking like something straight out of a mad science lab. “This is the lynchpin of the operation,” Sandalphon explained. “The Stable Field Emitter. While its internal logic is not fully mapped out, it projects a circular field that weakens ‘supernatural’ effects, nullifying weaker ones outright. This includes the timefall’s aging effect. As you might expect, protecting this device in transport is of vital importance to the mission. Be advised, however, that your own magic and other special abilities will also be weakened in its presence. Once you reach the Qliphoth, you can proceed through the demon tree’s interior without the Stable Field Emitter.”

Sandalphon paused, drinking deep of her coffee, then took a deep breath through her nose. “Finally, we have our third development. Three members of the team will be outfitted with these devices in order to enable the detection of BTs. Otherwise, we all risk running straight into them while approaching the Qliphoth.” When Deadman removed the tarp, the Seekers saw three oblong orange glass pods arranged on the table, all about two feet tall and a foot across. Each one contained some sort of fluid, and an infant, clothed in red, green, pink, and blue. With each came a highly-advanced scanner hooked up to a mechanical arm. “These BBs facilitate a connection with the ‘other side’, allowing them to detect BTs for the user. Thus, they are indispensable equipment, and must also be protected at all costs. Further questions about them will be fielded by Deadman after the operation. By the time we deploy, we will need six volunteers. Four to carry BBs, and two on Stable Field Emitter duty. Using this equipment to reach the Qliphoth is the hard part. Once you’re inside, you will be free to do what you do best.”

Sandalphon set her coffee down and crossed her arms. “This is a blitzkrieg operation. All twenty-four of us will be present. We will weather the storm, enter the Qliphoth, and annihilate the Guardian lurking inside. If Master Hand or Moebius show up on the way, we will destroy them as well.” She nodded at the assembled heroes. “That is all. You are dismissed for breakfast.”

With a rather heavy exhalation, Nadia joined the crowd headed for the mess hall. It lay only one floor down and a short walk away, but the amount of people around (some of them very large) meant that too much haste could cause problems. It hadn’t escaped her that the Life Gem whose essence flowed through her veins and sustained her impossible existence, probably counted as magic that the Stable Field Emitter would suppress. As long as it didn’t fade completely, she figured she should be fine. With so many Seekers present, anything they wound up fighting would be in for a hell of a time. Even if regeneration took longer, there would be ample opportunity in a squadron like that. But until they reached the Qliphoth, they were up against enemies they couldn’t fight. The BTs Sandalphon mentioned honestly creeped her out. If that absurdly immense explosion she witnessed while staying in Limsa, half a continent away, had been a voidout, a single person getting eaten would definitely doom the whole group. Was there really no way to fight these things? Nadia resolved to ask, but as her growling stomach so helpfully reminded her, food came first.

Given today’s mission, breakfast in the mess hall today was quite the occasion. Since the Lost Numbers’ last supply run had been at the Far Far Range, the cafeteria came equipped with a wealth of poultry products and unusual produce. Hungry visitors could pick up plenty of eggs and chicken sausage, and the fruits could be enjoyed as is, while the vegetables could be minced up and either pan-fried or eaten in omelets made to order by the head chef. Bracket Brace herself was there to field requests, the little white rabbit-creature’s positivity positively infectious, and the Lost Numbers in the kitchen were working hard too. Clearly, everyone could expect to eat very well, but there was one problem: space. The mess hall offered four tables that could seat six apiece, with no individual seating anywhere. Unless the diners grabbed their meals and ran, everyone would need to pile in and get cozy with five friends.

An expert at navigating crowds, Nadia made her way to the front of the pack the minute those tantalizing aromas reached her nostrils. As such, she managed to be one of the first to reach the tables. Grimm managed to get his food soon after, but he elected to seat himself at table two with his all-meat platter. When Goldlewis showed up, he decided to join Grimm in an effort to continue his hospitality. Meanwhile, Sandalphon was among the last in line. Given her usual diet of honey and coffee, stuffing herself with meat, fruits, and vegetables didn’t appeal to her all that much, but given her doctors’ insistence the archangel followed her instructions. Even then, however, she somehow reached table four with a number of honey packets for use in sweetening her meal.

Despite sleep coming late for some, morning came early for everyone. Hope's voice filtered into every room, waking the crew in order to get ready for the day's affairs. Except for the most recent recruits, everyone had some idea of what was on the docket for the Seekers' morning.

Primrose and Midna's room was kept pretty dark for the Twilight Princess' sensitive eyes, but the dancer didn't mind. She could dress and brush her hair out with her eyes closed anyway, though after her most recent fusion her hair did seem to want to curl itself back into a braid. Thankfully that style was pretty easy too, so once she was washed and garbed in her dress she sat back on her bunk to bundle all of her hair at the top of her head, tied it off and began to weave the long ponytail into itself.

Somewhere down the hall, Therion was already awake and exiting his room. He'd turned in about as early as he could, knowing that by the time the ship reached the desert he'd most likely be awake again. Sure enough, even before Ganondorf had entered their room the thief was awake and aware, though he chose to lay with his eyes closed to get more rest. The Gerudo had to have been even more tired judging by the way he hit the bed. Therion didn't mind sharing the room with the other man, but it would probably be a while before he could sleep through the whole night both in the close proximity of another and with the ambient noise of the airship to get used to. A few cat naps and a couple of hours was all he really needed though, or so he told himself, so when morning came he got up with no complaints. He splashed some water on his face, dressed, bid the King of Evil a quick good morning, and then he was on his way to the bridge.

Surprisingly, Pit was even faster. Considering the angel claimed to have to be ready for duty at all times, he rarely undressed in the first place. This was true last night as well, where even his chestplate remained on as he slept on his back with his now larger wings stretched out and hanging off the sides of his bunk. It had been easy enough to get to sleep, but upon waking he decided that at the very least he'd doff the new armor pieces for future nights. He was up after only the bare minimum of feet dragging.

And then there was the Ace Cadet. His second night on the Avenger down, he found it wasn't that bad. It had taken him some extra time to calm his racing heart after parting with Nadia enough to fall back asleep, but once he had he'd slept like a log until the AI's message roused everyone from their slumbers. With his equipment it took the man a little extra time, but he was an early riser anyway - so when it was time for everyone to assemble, he was right on time. He entered the room back in his usual armor, the altered Rathian plate, with the the arm pieces swapped out for a plainer kote and devoid of a helmet for now. With just one day of rest between doing battle with Consul L and soon being deployed to take on a Guardian, it felt a little like hopping out of the frying pan into the fire. He couldn't deny the tingle of anticipation though.

The Dead Zone. Ace didn't have any frame of reference for what they'd find there beyond what he'd been told by other Seekers, and what they'd said made it sound horrible. Now, even after that huge explosion - the voidout - had wiped the whole place clean, it still sounded horrible. But they had to tackle it at some point, and the best time was now that everyone was together.

Speaking of, with the Bridge filled with people the Cadet could finally get a good look at who 'everyone' was. Of the Seekers that he'd fought with in the Blue Seaside, only Nadia, Geralt, Blazermate, and the Koopa kids remained. He'd been told what had happened with Bowser, Kamek, and Peach, and that Sakura was up in some city helping refugees along with Karin. He'd found Tora and Poppi were here on the Avenger during his round, though they'd opted to stay out of the action for now. And of course, Linkle was stuck up in the Frozen Highlands at the moment. Besides those Seekers, Ace vaguely recognized a few others that had been introduced in Twilight Town. It had been right before he'd gotten stuck in the Highlands himself, so he'd only met them for a few hours at that point, and combined with the fusion changes he had a harder time telling who was who. Nothing a little time spent together won't fix, he figured, as his attention then shifted to the total strangers.

He had briefly met Sandalphon the day before and found her to be pleasant, though they hadn't talked of anything besides, well, Seeker business. Besides her there was a rugged man with an eyepath and a horn protruding from his head... No, wait, not a horn...? Looks more like it could be a wound. Ouch. A red-clad woman with a horned crown... A middle aged man with a pair of gray wings... A coffin-carrying bearded behemoth... Whoa, he's almost as big as Band! And that groovios haircut! An equally tall tanned man with dark cropped hair and a goatee... An almost nondescript man save for pale blue skin and white and black hair... A sort of dark and eerie looking woman in a patchwork dress... A shorter person in a dark cloak that looked Neopteron in nature... A fit woman in a flashy black and pink bodysuit and sharp eyeliner... A muscular man in a blue suit and a helmet that obscured his eyes... And another huge man with sharp facial features and red hair that rivaled the Cadet's own in color.

After taking stock of the Seekers as they were now, he realized that an entire half of them were people he'd never met. He also had no clue which of the girls was the Juri that Nadia had warned him to 'steer clear' of, but if he had to guess it probably wasn't the thin, dark haired woman with the very magical looking eyes.

He'd have to meet them all properly after the meeting, as it began almost immediately so as not to waste any time.

As the first item for success in their mission, the personal shield generators drew plenty of interest. Pit likened it to the shield bubbles of Smash tournaments, so he figured he would get used to it right away. Not that he wanted to have to spend much time under the aging rain. And if the barrier's strength relied on not getting struck, Therion didn't think he'd have many issues with keeping his working properly. But if it was as simple as using energy to protect against the timefall, couldn't a magic barrier also be used in a pinch? As Primrose considered that option, the second item was unveiled making it known that magic may not be so reliable for the first part of the mission.

This was the linchpin of getting through the timefall unscathed, the Stable Field Emitter, but the fact that it weakened the effects of magic and other similar abilities gave a large portion of the Seekers some reservations. Pit had no doubts that his goddess' divine power would be unaffected, but for Primrose and Therion their ability to support the group would most likely be taking a hit. With no magic to speak of, save for possibly the boon bestowed upon him my Aphrodite a while ago, the Ace Cadet would have no such issues. Ultimately this machine was going to protect all of them as they invaded the Dead Zone, so no one could really put up a fuss. While the hunter thought about if it was possible to miniaturize the field emitter for taking down mages in the future, the final piece of the puzzle was revealed.

The BBs. Pit remembered being introduced to them and that method of detecting BTs a while ago, when he, Nero, Yuri, Banjo, and Kazooie returned from their reconnaissance work at the edge of the Dead Zone. They'd been opposed to using the infants then, even though they'd been told it was impossible to track or sense the BTs without them. So... no one had been able to find another way? Or maybe they hadn't even tried at all, preferring a tested method.

Pit tightened his fists at his sides. It had been weeks since the angel first learned about the BBs; he'd changed, but he still didn't like this plan. A quick glance around the room told him that he wasn't the only one with reservations either. The Ace Cadet seemed bewildered by the idea as he tried to parse what Sandalphon was saying, and how and why they needed to expose the BBs to danger. The Beached Things seemed like some sort of ghosts from their description, and if the BBs had a connection to the 'other side' was it because they'd just been born? How did that work? He couldn't quite grasp it and didn't really want to in the first place, the whole thing rubbing him the wrong way. Primrose and Therion hid their distaste behind carefully crafted neutral expressions, the both of them having already decided that they would do what they had to do in order to make the world right. Still, taking literal infants into battle was asking a lot.

Out of the four of them, Primrose alone held one piece of information that let her get over the use of BBs more quickly. These infants would never grow up - they wouldn't make it past ten years even if they'd been allowed to age.

Mere bookmarks. Just like everyone else.

She didn't like thinking about it in detail, but with that knowledge in the back of her mind she could push down her discomfort and go along with the plan. Sandalphon mentioned the need for volunteers to be decided before deployment, and the dancer took a step forward to offer herself as one - much to the surprise of some.

"I will carry a BB," she said. If the machine they were taking would weaken her magic, then she would be a less effective combatant. On the other hand, even if it weakened the positive effects of her dancing, a buff was still a buff. She could support the team from the back line and simultaneously protect the BB while it did its thing.

Pit balked at how fast she seemed to volunteer. Shouldn't they talk about this a little more? Was everyone really okay with little baby Mario and friends coming along with them as glorified sensors?!

"Why can't we just shoot down right next to the Qliphoth from the sky?" Pit asked, pronouncing the tree's name correctly for the first time. "Then we wouldn't have to deal with the rain or the BTs in the first place! Right?"

"The equipment is delicate, particularly the Stable Field Emitter. In addition, the crown of the Qliphoth tree is much larger than the base, its branches of flesh thick and tubular in shape. This poses a great deal of risk to incoming hellpods, which could deflect off its surface and become deathtraps, or leave troops stranded at an intolerable altitude." Sandalphon's pupils became inverted triangles as she explained. "Most poignantly, the Avenger can fire only four hellpods at once, and it cannot hover in place. It would take six passes to send everyone down, and if the first few run into trouble -including but not limited to landing in a BT pack- they will be on their own until reinforcements arrive." The archangel projected a screen with the image of a much smaller troop transport ship on it. "Our plan is to deploy the bulk of our forces via Pelican."

"...I guess that makes sense..." Pit begrudgingly admitted. He seemed to want to argue, but instead he closed his mouth and squeezed his eyes shut. His face went through a couple of expressions as though he was having a conversation with someone internally as the meeting wrapped up around him.

"I can look after the Field Emitter," the Cadet said from across the room, offering himself as one of the six needed volunteers. The device was large, but he didn't think he'd have any problems lifting it. Though this would likely prove to be different, escorting people and goods in caravans while keeping them protected was something he had experience with, so he was sure he could handle it. Wanting to be helpful was in the hunter's nature, and he'd much rather do this than risk fighting with a baby on board. There was a slightly more selfish reason too, in that being on emitter duty meant he would most likely be at the center of this anti-magic, anti-supernatural field.

Therion was not about to volunteer for either role. It wasn't because he didn't want to help out, but because he knew he wasn't a good fit. If the Seekers needed to fight something that wasn't a BT, then Therion's offensive style of debuffing and hit and run would not lend itself well to carrying a BB. Neither would sticking around the emitter, which he figured would restrict him to his throwing weapons only if his (admittedly unreliable) magic spell wouldn't work. Actually, wouldn't the field reduce the effectiveness of his debuffs as well? This is gonna be a pain, he thought, letting out a quiet sigh. The group could only hope to get through to this "Qliphoth" as quickly and quietly as possible.

Once everyone had a chance to say their piece or put themselves up for early volunteering, Sandalphon dismissed the group. As basically one mass they moved down to the mess hall, all of them more or less ready to prepare for what would be an intense day. Once whatever private conversation he'd been having was over, Pit turned and left pretty quickly. He'd need a little more time to come to terms with some aspects of the mission plan, but mostly he was just hungry. He squeaked towards the front of the pack before the hallway got too congested. Much less concerned about getting their quickly, the Orsterrans simply joined the group and ended up somewhere in the middle. They exchanged some morning greetings with each other and few other Seekers they'd gotten to know better than others as they did. And although pretty eager to eat, Ace was content to just wait his turn - better everyone else get their fill before he got a chance at the buffet.

After Falcon had shown Snake to his room, the rest of the night became a near-dreamless blur. It was impossible for him to settle into rest as he still dealt with the influx of memories, old and new, recent and distant, that circulated incessantly within the blackness of his vision. He had lived a fabricated existence for who-knows-how many months in that strange hypertechnicolor dreamscape, and he had lived his existence of peaceless tragedy that finally culminated in defeat back in his universe. Yet here he was, spared from the death that he was sure would claim him following the demise of Skull Face. Miller was paranoid that there was still something out there that needed to be dealt with; not simply content to have cut the head off the Hydra that was XOF and be done with it. Ocelot's penchant for vengeance wasn't as intense, but "there was still more work to be done." The Russian cowpoke had been drafting something up the day after after Skull Face had been killed, and according to him, it would be readily presented in the next week.

Then came Huey.

Snake's flickering visions brought him to a table in a dimly lit room- a rickety old wooden thing big enough for a pair of two, housed within Code Talker's quarters. The old man requested a meeting with him after hearing through hushed whispers that his own tormentor was no more. The Boss was content to oblige, more out of curiosity for the visit over expecting praise for his actions. Seated across from him, Snake looked at the Native American biologist. The man had to be ancient- well past a century at best. Mottled skin, pockmarked with creases and wrinkles and liverspots that adorned his wisened features, with pearl tufts of wiry hair layering against each side of his head. His piercing white eyes gazed onto and even through the Boss, as if the man could never get a read on the Mercenary commander's soul every time he was looked at. Code Talker nodded graciously as the Boss sat down, musing out a croak in his throat as Snake fully expected him to offer his gratitude.

"You say there were three English vocal parasites." The statement was uttered out in a low grumble. The Boss wasn't expecting Code Talker to get ahold of the AAR so quickly after returning to Mother Base. Yet, he surmised, anything and everything involving 'The One That Covers' was to be given the highest priority, lest it end up like last time. Snake was quick to respond, recounting the events that had happened just a day earlier.

"According to Skull Face, yeah." Snake responded.

"Skull Face had two of the English strain with him. You burned both of them."

"There was an oil fire- I tossed 'em in."

"So that just leaves one. And you speculate Skull Face used it."

He didn't use it. The man was dying; pinned beneath the immolated wreckage of the destroyed Sahelanthropus Metal Gear. As Snake picked up the vial canister and tossed the tubes into the fire, Skull Face had taunted him at the absence of the third vial.

"He said it was... 'very close to me.'" Snake said.

Code Talker's expression hardened in contemplation as the corner of his mouth deepened into a scowl. "Very close... One of your comrades, or someone ordered to kill you... Or he could have been speaking metaphorically."

"Metaphorically?"

"Close to your spirit. Close to your heart. Someone who either loves you, or despises you." At that moment, the flickering visage faded into onyx obscurity as a surge of emotions caused the man to tense in his restless state. A slow melodic tone began to accompany his thoughts; seemingly in time with his rising emotions.

It was him. That bastard got ahold of it- but how? It couldn't have been Quiet... was it? Was she still out for her own revenge, waiting for the perfect moment to strike?

The chorus of notes gradually rose in volume as the noise began to fully infiltrate his head, interrupting any further attempt at inquiry as it got louder and louder. At its peak, Snake's eyes shot open, his vision dulled into a near-monochrome as the colors of his environment were faded. An irritating side-effect of the shrapnel, but he was used to it nonetheless. The room PA crackled; the clinical feminine voice reminding him of his iDroid as it issued the morning statement. The Avenger was headed to a place called the Dead Zone, and the briefing was in fourteen minutes. Taking a moment to glance around the room and surmising that whoever he'd been roomed with was awake long before he was, Snake gave himself a quick pat-down as he made his way out of the quarters. He had time to kill... and a cup of coffee before deployment wouldn't hurt.

Following the signs to the Messhall, the steadily growing aroma of various foods emitting from the nearby room released a growling pain of hunger from his abdomen. Damn, he couldn't remember the last time he ate. Blinking away his sleep, the man steeled his jaw as he stepped through the doorway.