Kingdom Hearts RE: Order

by Zeromaru Chaos Mode

There was one survivor. One remaining person who lived through the War. Asleep until just after the defeat of Xemnas yet now awake. A mistake leads him to be connected to Kairi, and from there, both of them are led to the Truth. But what are those strange creatures, riding pathways of Light? He seeks the forgotten one. Rewrite of The Thirteenth Order.

25. Truth

Kingdom Hearts RE: Order

Chapter XXIV: Time of Truth

He'd pulled himself up, head leaning on the underside of the ledge. He was battered, tired, and still trying to get his head in gear. The quests that Lycoris kept sending him on were distractions, but…with meeting them one last time, he knew it was the moment to face what needed to be faced.

"Ughh…" still, he groaned, trying to calm his raging heart, to nudge aside the lingering pain.

I swear…someone out there really is trying to cave my head in.

"Are you well, my King?"

And as always, Aki was there. Though this time she was idly kicking her legs while sitting on the ledge above him, smiling gently down at him.

"Graaaaah…"

The smile widened at his response. "Shall I obtain a Heart for you, my King?"

"No…no…I'm good…just…tired." He sighed. "Alright lets get this show on the road…OI! YUFFIE!" He winced slightly after his yell out to the kunoichi. It would seem his head was still ringing.

Confused, the girl looked at him, not sure how to feel.

"Was a damn quest. Lyco left me a note saying this world called out to her and asked for our help. Lyco told me that when I got Drained that killed off the Yukianesa. So Lyco made an empty shell blade to be attuned to you. The ritual usually works in reverse, where we take someone's soul and draw out its concept to forge a weapon from it, but Lyco figured something similar to the Yukianesa would work best for you."

"That...ok but how does the whole trying to kill me part come in?"

"Blood, love. The sword had a vague sentience, but other than that, no soul. It needed your blood to finish being bound to you, to finish being born, effectively. Unfortunately you're too damn good as I was…and…well…" He looked up at Aki, who just smiled again.

"I kinda needed that too."

"Explains some of it, but not enough, Shishou."

"Ahh right…well, Lolithea had a request of her own. She wanted to know the person she was being bound to."

"And the fastest way to know someone is to fight them. Alright…so…you had to be hidden, trying to get me to fight at my best, right?"

"Aye. When dealing with shit like this, it's best to go big or go home. Maybe a spar would have worked, maybe not. But when someone asks you to know someone else, a no-holds-barred fight is usually the way to go."

"Yes…because when fighting for one's life, you can see their true nature. How far they'd be willing to go, to survive."

During their conversation, quietly, but determined, a certain blonde girl made her way to where Selh'teus was sitting. He had noticed her, but left it unacknowledged, as she wasn't giving off any hostile sensation.

…home…I'm going home…

Just that…weird…knowing feeling.

And then, surprising quite a few, the girl stepped next to him, while he was finishing up with Yuffie, knelt down, and then proceeded to lay flat on her back, her head directly in his lap. Yet even then, to further the surprise, all he did was shift a little, then begin gently playing with her hair.

Everyone could see the sigh of content, rushing out of the blonde.

…I'm home…

Yeah…yeah you are.

---

"Uhh…Shishou?"

"Ahh?"

"You…realize that…Naminé's kinda laying on you…right?"

"Yeah."

"…why?"

"Iunno, figured she knew something I didn't."

"Speaking of knowing something I don't." came the voice of Marlene.

"My price?"

He sighed. "Riiight…"

His hesitance made everyone wary.

"Look…how…badly did you want children?"

The Hall froze.

"Oh…oh…oh…" Marlene muttered, eyes wide.

"you…sonova BITCH!" Barret yelled, arm beginning its transformation into gun state, rising and beginning to rush towards Selh'teus.

*THOOSH*

That is until a massive grey hand ripped from a large rip in space, slamming down on the charging black man's back. Selh'teus sighed, turning.

"Thank you Aki, but that's…"

But she was just sitting there, blinking in surprise. She hadn't moved at all. Her hair was exactly as it was before.

"…that's not you." He concluded. He sighed again, taking his hand not gently tangled in Naminé's locks, and placing two fingers at the sides of the bridge of his nose.

"Right. This is a thing now."

He shook his head. He'd figure it out later. Right now it was keeping him in control of the conversation.

"Look. You're not barren. The process was based off the damn Residency ritual. I put a gem inside you, made from Lycoris' blood, and basically turned you into a temporary, one-time Cauldron."

Marlene looked at the man she called Boss, worried, but believing his words.

"What it did was basically take the concept of Time and apply it directly to your timeline. It made you a Cauldron, to forge the Memory inside you. Basically what happened is that about half your stock of eggs was consumed to fuel the time required. Each one of those eggs represented a child you potentially could have had, and all of their children and so on. All of that time was then searched for weapon knowledge. It combined Lycoris' knowledge of Armaments with that of your future unborn children, and consumed it."

"That's not much fuckin better Seth!" yelled Alice.

"Listen, all those futures, those lives, are lost now." He continued, ignoring Alice's exclamation. "Not a single one of them will exist, because their concept, their time was used to make that memory. That is their legacy. That Arms Memory is the culmination of all of those timelines. That memory is them. They will never be born, but they still exist. That Memory is the concept of your unborn children, captured, melted down, condensed and solidified into reality. That memory is everything you are. Your past, your present, and all of those dead futures. Morto sos Manaf."

She held the silver stick in hand. Staring at it. It shimmered in the low light, like a star. Her memory…her children. …wait.

"You…you said half." The statement was strange to her. Why half?

"Yeah. Past science says that girls are born with every egg they'll ever need. I dunno how that works but whatever. Basically every period you have flushes one. Maybe more, was never clear on that part personally. And by age 50, give or take a few years, that's when menopause hits, when the woman's out of eggs, generally unable to normally have children. Basically, the cost of your power is that you have less time to have kids. Now, my math is going to probably be horrifically wrong, but I'm gonna try to make it make sense."

Marlene nodded.

"You were…how old when you got your first period?"

"Eleven."

"Right. So…lets see, a standard setup is once a month, times twelve months, times…ok so lets say fifty's the usual benchmark. Eleven from fifty is thirty-nine times twelve is four sixty-eight…cut that in half is…two thirty-four. So…if you plan on having kids, do it before you turn twenty one?" he turned to Akira. "Is that right? I've always sucked at math and this is some fucked up math here."

The girl shrugged. "It sounds right to me, my King."

He blinked at her. "…wait why am I asking you. I could ask you if the sky was green and you'd probably agree." Aki just grinned.

"You're learning, my King."

He snorted. "yeah yeah…" Turning back to Marlene, he continued. "Anyway, about there? Either you have until you're twenty-one or you have twenty-one years left. …actually I like that second one more. Feels more accurate. So less twenty-one years left and more…what…eighteen? So thirty…six? Fuck if I know. If you keep having periods after twenty-one then you have till you're thirty six. There. Fuck."

Barret had stopped struggling, and the strange grey arm vanished. Marlene just smiled slightly. The price wasn't as terrible as she'd feared. Not that she could see herself having children at all but…even for someone her age, the option was nice to think about. A long time down the line.

"Wait, why the hell bother with all that? Why do that?" Asked Aerith, who genuinely wanted to know.

"Because I owed her. She was a major help while we were trying to find this place. She lived through hell. And she didn't have to. And she was a damn big help."

"Yes but why like that."

"Because the only other way to craft a Memory specifically made out of her concept would be to make her a Resident and there is no way in hell am I fucking a fourteen year old, regardless of what Lyco wants!"

Resident?!

Naminé's eyes, which were half-lidded and relaxed, snapped open. Her eyes locked onto his face, head and body rising. Her mouth opened to speak-

"And what the hell is that Tia forsaken sound?!"

And she promptly blinked in confusion. Sound? What sound?

"Uhh…boss?"

"Aki, please tell me you hear that."

The girl blinked at him. "I'm sorry my King, I don't."

"Motherf…rrrrrgh!"

An annoyed scowl on his face, he got up. Naminé was left sitting next to where he once was, as he descended she short stairs, glaring his way through the crowd, trying to find the source of the sound only he could hear. His head turned this way and that, eyes flickering over every single person in the Hall; Princesses of Heart, Keybearers, Residents, Tinkerbell? Odd. Before he stopped. Slowly he turned…and stepped towards one specific person.

Eyes narrowed in confusion, step by step, he moved closer to the source. But he was obstructed in his investigation…by Roxas.

"Move."

No force. No condemnation. No emotion at all. Just a simple command. Not a request, a demand. Focused intent filled the voice of the one Akira called King. Roxas felt himself being bowled over by a wave of pressure, knocked away, knocked down, not harshly but just enough force to throw him on his back. Selh'teus stepped towards Olette, hearing a mid-pitched ringing coming from her, surrounded by staticy white noise. A fizzling, buzzing tone. The girl was frozen in place, knowing that if he wanted something from her, even at her best she would be powerless before him.

For once, he faced someone who knew their place. Few he'd ever encountered bothered to consider the amount of power they stood before, even when he was weaker. Though it was difficult to see, she once was able to behold some of his time. And she knew, if he wanted something, there would be no stopping him from getting it.

And just like that, he reached out, slowly, tentatively…and touched her damn left breast. Roxas growled, but was halted by the look of abject confusion on his face. Doubled when both his right hand, and a single line across her torso began to glow. Olette was borderline hyperventilating. She was terrified. She had no idea why he'd just groped her when suddenly she felt something. Some…interconnectedness? A Resonance of its own make. She looked down at his hand, still connected to her breast, and saw the glow.

It never did that before. It was just a big gash. Why…would it suddenly be glowing in reaction to him?

"…why…do you have a Rift Scar?"

The terror bled away into confusion. She'd never even considered such a term, and she could definitely hear the designation in his voice. "…a…a what?"

He looked up at her, still confused. "A Rift Scar…it's what remains of-

*DING*

He was silenced by the ringing sound of a bell toning. A loud, ripping noise of reality being torn open, followed. A small distortion in the shape of a skyward facing cone of grey and lavender clouds, spiraling towards a pale grey light opened up, depositing a figure.

Lycoris, had arrived.

"Oh good, you're still here Ma-

And saw exactly who he was touching.

And then, as with everything that goes on in his life…

All hell broke loose.

---

He didn't know fully, how he knew what was coming. Maybe it was due to their connection. Maybe it was part of why he was suddenly getting impulses from Ino, Naminé and whoever the third was. But the moment she cut off, he felt a pulse of will, unrelated to him, but targeting the girl his hand was attached to.

But therein lay the problem.

He knew it was coming. But he could do little. It was like with facing Ino when Tiamat had taken her over. The speed at which Lycoris attacked was beyond comprehensible, even though he was tied to her. He could determine where her attack was coming from. Even where it was intended to land. But even though he could tell that, he couldn't defend.

The ringed trinity glyph formed, eye appearing in its center, and a gale of blades ripped forth.

He couldn't defend. He could even hear the voice from an old game saying it. "You can't defend."

But he tried anyway. Holding back and everything, trying to block the unblockable. Back. A+B. L1. Different commands from different games, different time periods, each one representing 'defense'. Mind flickering back to the old days. Just like back playing Gundam Battle Assault. As the glyph formed, he grabbed Olette by the waist, whirled her behind him, twisted and 'popped the bubble'.

But his barriers did not 'block' in the traditional sense. They 'defended' by way of redirection, of pushing out a wall of 'go away' that attempted to override all forward momentum. That being said, fast enough objects, or objects that 'attacked' by way of spatial collapses, bypassed his 'bubble'. As with Tia Form his defense would be worthless.

…and yet, like before, a single word came. A Word of Power that even he didn't fully understand how he knew. A word that rose when his life was in danger. A word that held little meaning to him at the time, save that it protected him at the most dire of moments. A Word that was not a Word.

It was a declaration of intent. A manifestation of denial. A clarification of personal space. A condemnation of action.

A decision.

A meaning.

A world.

A name.

"AEGIS!"

The rain of bladed death reached him.

And was broken upon the Wall.

---

Nobody knew what just happened. Suddenly Lycoris appeared, and then just as suddenly a wall of blades was summoned and shot at Olette. And then Seth had yelled that name again.

And the blades were stopped. Each glowing phantasmal sword slammed into the upgraded defensive field, shattering upon its surface. No point pierced through, no edge defiled his space. All was denied.

But as the wall of swords was raining forth upon them, another sword appeared. This one larger than even Sephiroth was tall, made of interconnected plates of pale grey, lavender and what looked like obsidian. The eye symbol just above the hilt gave it a sinister appearance. Yet in but moments after it landed behind Lycoris, the blade…expanded. Plates shifting outward as if it was concealing within some sort of existence. The blade shattered, the plates turning into motes of black light before wrapping around the girl.

As the Wall formed around Selh'teus and Olette, the black light faded, revealing Lycoris wearing strange, blade-like black, grey, and pale lavender armor, floating inches above the ground, eight sword shaped 'wings' spread behind her, metal grey visor over her face, a single solid violet eye appearing in the center.

Murakumo Unit Engaged
Downloading Primary Attack Routine
Download Complete
Activating Termination Protocol_

---

"Master, get out of the way."

Arms crossed in front of him, surrounded by what looked like rotating translucent violet crystal, Selh'teus responded.

"Dafuq you doin Lyco?!"

"She must be destroyed. Move, Master."

"Why?! Goddammit Lyco one day! Can I just get one fucking day without some titshitting fucknutting cocknut trying to fuck everything up?!"

Oh…he was mad. …still. This couldn't be ignored.

"She is a threat, Master. I cannot abide her existence."

"HOW THE FUCK-

"She has already attempted an unauthorized synchronization, Master. She must be eliminated."

Slowly, his arms lowered. The barrier remained, however. "When the fuck did she-

"She has attempted to impose her own Observation upon you once before."

"…when?"

"At my Conception."

His arms dropped completely. The barrier yet stood. "…wait…how-

"She is a Void Element with a Time aspect. I cut her down, but it seems she somehow lived. Move aside, Master, that I may end this threat."

"Threat to WHAT?!"

"Our home."

"…bullshit! She's Olette! Even if she-

"She has a Keyblade, Master. A Keyblade and a Time Aspect. Stand, Aside."

"…I can't…goddammit Lyco I can't just let you kill her because of that."

"She is a threat. You have a duty to perform."

"She's an ally!"

"Inconclusive. We cannot rely on supposed allies."

"Dammit Lyco!"

"No, Master. I will not relent. Even for you."

"How. How is this…slip of a girl-

"You know the Keyblade holds much potential, amplifying it beyond normal parameters. She has the potential to match Elle's power."

...that…was a problem. A big problem. The barrier remained, but as everyone watched the rapid exchange between Lycoris and Selh'teus, they could see the defeat in his eyes.

"…you can't let her go?"

"She is capable of Observing. I cut her down, and yet she stands. I must finish the job in terminating the threat to our world."

He looked back at the brunette, her green eyes staring at him in fear. Her chest was still glowing with the Rift Scar she had incurred. As was his right hand, glowing with it.

"…all threats must be removed…right?" he sounded defeated. He sounded exhausted. And yet…He looked at her. She met his eyes. His, strayed down, to the glowing Scar. And just like that…he had a thought.

"…we put her in the Cauldron."

"…what?"

Lycoris was truly surprised.

"…yeah…yeah we put her in the Cauldron. You say she's a threat, but she's also an Ally. To kill her would be to piss off people we don't need to waste time knocking down. We'd basically have to wage a war against most of the Realm of Light and I'm fucking tired, Lyco."

"Master you-

"No, listen. We put her in the Cauldron. And we temper her. We…we alter her code, right? She gets to keep the Keyblade, keep the Time Aspect, we just…reforge her body so the Rift Scar isn't there. And…and we change the code. So she can't Observe us without your permission. We tie her to you that way, so you can confirm or deny access at each venue. And…and we make it both ways, so if something shitty happens we can be warned."

"…that…"

"And that's all we need to do. Just…rewrite her code just enough so she's not a threat anymore."

"Why…would we waste time restoring her power and body?"

"Because she was chosen by her World. Olette never had a Keyblade, and if she does now means that Twilight Town, a border world, mind you, has picked her to wield it. We could crush it, but why waste a useful resource, and ally? To do so would be pointless, right? No meaning to it. And…she survived. She survived you. Things…don't simply survive you. Or me. Not easily at all. So…if she could survive you, even in an incomplete state…if she could survive your Termination Protocol…that means her concept of I Am, was stronger, even if only just, than your determination of You Are Not, right? And…such a rarity…shouldn't that be rewarded?"

Lycoris was silent. And then spoke with a huff.

"…fine. Very well. We will smelt her down. But you are gathering the materials, Master."

"…eh? I thought we had a shitton of-

"There are only five thousand halos remaining. The rest of them were consumed in your Cauldron, Master. And five thousand is not enough for such a reconfiguration."

"…and Lordran is gone so we can't just grab Souls from there…ahh…Aki?"

A burst of black vapors and the Dark Queen was…inside the barrier. Lycoris gave a cute frown at that.

"Yes, my King."

"Would…would Hearts be able to be used in a Cauldron?"

The teen tilted her head, considering the idea.

"…possibly. I am uncertain to the full extent however, my King."

He nodded, looking down. "…yeah…and we don't really want to fuck about with that anyway…"

"Probably not, my King."

"Too much chance of something going wrong…experimenting with Hearts is what started Sora's problems anyway…even if we could just purge them it wouldn't change that it would have been an Observed event…"

"So?"

"Yare yare…fine…I'll go hunt some damn Laguna soon…I'm taking a goddamn Vacation first though." He turned to Olette. "So sorry, little love, but you're going to have to keep that scar for a little while longer…shit we don't even know where their home world is…"

"I-it's fine! R-really! T-totally fine! Take your time!" the girl stuttered out, still reeling at how close to true death she came.

With that, the crystal barrier ceased rotating, before shattering with a gentle tinkling noise of clinking glass into fragments of glowing light. Lycoris sighed. "Disengaging Combat Routine."

The armor shattered off her in a manner similar to how it formed, returning to the state of its giant sword.

"Do you realize how much work you're going to be making me do, Daddy?" She said with a huff.

"Do you realize that I don't even know how the fuck I managed to not die just now?"

Lycoris frowned. "I…felt something strange when you did…something old…older than me…but…familiar."

"Shishou?"

Lycoris, Selh'teus, Akira, and basically everyone else in the damn hall, turned to a confused looking Yuffie.

"Two things? First…what's a Cauldron? I've been hearing that word a lot lately."

"One sec." He turned around to Olette. This time his hand touching her shoulder, and quite gently. "Sorry…about her. She gets…defensive. Rightfully, but…pre-emptive measures and all that…"

"I…uhh…I-Is she your…"

"That's…something to get into after. But…we'll patch you up. Promise."

"Dammit Daddy!" Lyco exclaimed. Seth tilted his head towards her, quirking an eyebrow.

"I thought you said no more quests!"

"…uhh?"

"Hrrrrrrgh! Every time you promise something it gets logged in my systems as a quest!"

He blinked. "…ahh. Huh…didn't know that. I was gonna do it anyway but I guess this works. This way, barring unforeseen circumstances, I'm contractually obligated to follow through."

He shook his head, patting Olette on the shoulder.

"By the way, does the Scar flare up at all?"

"…flare…up…?"

"Yeah. Discharges of color or energy, sudden bouts of incalculable agony brought about by nothing at all, reactions to things that make no sense…things like that."

"Umm…it…hurts to bend over too often…and sometimes sit…but it's more a pulling soreness…?"

He shook his head. "No that's scar tissue, naturally. Different thing entirely."

"Oh…umm…did you mean like…today?"

"Right. Stuff like the glowy thing."

"Oh…no then. Just…the normal stuff I guess."

"Good. Means I can still take that damn vacation…" the last bit was said softer, more to himself.

"Anyway." He turned back to Yuffie. "Cauldron. Right."

"A Cauldron is a God-Class device used in the creation, repair or forging of Concept." Lycoris spoke suddenly. Seth nodded to what she'd said.

"That's it in a nutshell. It's more than that, obviously, but that's the basic information about it. The thing is, Cauldrons are pretty nasty things capable of warping and distorting temporal and even existential concept. Rather than 'fire' they use 'concept' to compress and break down what's inside."

"What Cauldrons smelt down is not metal, it's souls. A Caldron consumes souls or things similar in nature, as fuel to write, or rewrite an entire concept's shape. It's a device used to create tools of a near God-like origin and nature, generally of War." Continued the girl.

"It, despite its name, is a Void device. Since the Void is where all things start, and where all things end; a Cauldron uses that concept and shapes it. It breaks things down to their state both before and after conception, and then forges something within, by combining all of those ideas." Stated Seth.

"A Cauldron takes the Past, Present and all the possible Futures of its materials and compresses them together. Time becomes distorted within a Cauldron, and sometimes even around one. This is because it is wielding the aspect, the idea of Time itself to Forge what is within." Lyco said.

"What's the point though?" Asked Yuffie.

"Who knows?" Came Seth's response. "Cauldrons are rare but not as rare as you think. Basically, every world's Heart? That's a Cauldron. The idea of Heaven or Hell? Cauldrons. Purgatory? Cauldron. Woman's body? Cauldron."

"Explain." Came Aqua's voice, hard and angry. Ven reached over and grabbed her hand, while Terra grabbed the other. Both supported her, but neither knew why she was so mad.

They didn't know the terror she felt, facing Zero. They didn't know the pain. But she did. She remembered it all. And more and more she feared.

She feared she would have to die trying to futilely stop him.

Whether or not Selh'teus knew or even fathomed her feeling, was unknown, and irrelevant to him. For he continued on anyway.

"Think about it. Grasps the materials within, compresses. Time accumulates, more materials are added, removed, compressed, consumed. Then nine months later, give or take a few weeks, out pops an entirely new life. Heart, Mind, Body, Soul. Where did the Soul come from? One of the biggest questions of my time is where do our souls come from, if they even exist? And another was where do they go when we die?" said Seth

"It's the notion that women craft or absorb souls, and infuse their children with them upon birth, that gives them the designation of a Cauldron. As Master said, nobody knows when or why the first Cauldron was created, nor what was smelted within it. We know that the Heart of a world is a Cauldron. All worlds are Cauldrons. But not all Cauldrons are worlds." Spoke Lycoris.

"You're still fucking about with Souls though, Shishou…that's…kinda messed up." Yuffie stated.

"Yeah. It is. But better me than some asshat with a God-complex. Besides, with the Laguna around we don't need normal souls to do it with. Their Halos, the little gold rings they spit out when they die, are condensed souls. Like with other life-forms, stronger Laguna spit out more souls, or Halos in this case. Not only are the Halos themselves some incomprehensible metal-like material, but they are literally condensed souls. The totality of that Laguna's concept, taking the shape of little gold rings." Seth added.

Lycoris nodded. "If it weren't for the Halos we probably would almost never use the Cauldron except under very dire circumstances. Not with Lordran gone at any rate…"

"The thing about Cauldron use is that in order to make or temper a thing, you need an equivalent number of souls to do so with. The number of souls has to match or exceed the 'weight' of the thing's concept. That's why I can't just shove Olette in there this very moment and be done with it. Not only are we repairing a Rift Scar, but we have to repair a Rift Scar on someone bearing not only a Keyblade, but also a Time Aspect nearly on the level of Elle."

"Is there not another way? Some other method to heal Miss Olette's wound?" Came the voice of Eraqus.

"Holy shit you're alive? Huh. Didn't see that one coming." Seth was surprised to see the old Keyblade Master. "Ahh, whatever. But…no. That's not a normal cut. That's a Cut. Born of Lycoris' will to erase Olette. Olette should be dead. Deader than dead. Nothing left. No Heart, no Soul. Her existence was supposed to be cut in two, bisected, erased. Memory would remain, but nothing else."

"What could perform such an act?" he asked further.

"The Will of a World. The will of my World. Olette should have been gone. But she's not. The very concept of Void was wielded here. The idea of non-existence was applied to Olette's concept of being. And considering it was directed by a World, that should have been that. But Lyco may be a World, but she's still not as strong as she will be. And I think that, combined with Olette's unique circumstances of anchors, allowed her to barely survive what should have been a complete end."

"You mentioned before, something about a sense of self. What does that mean, exactly?" it seemed the older Keyblade Master was fielding questions now. Fair enough.

"The Void consumes all. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Everything dies. Everything ends. All that was, at one point was not. And all that Is, at some point, will no longer be. That is the Truth of Existence. All that exists, didn't at one point, and will no longer exist, at another point in the future. There's an old saying, from my time. Maybe you've heard of it. Take care when staring into the Abyss, for should one linger for too long, the Abyss will stare back. This is absolutely true. Those that come in contact with the Void itself become…marked. It's hard to explain. Many barely change at all. Maybe a dimming of a sense, or a weakening of an emotion. Sometimes personality matrices become diminished. Minor effects that eventually are recovered from."

Ariel began to stand straighter. This sounded…familiar.

"But those that get too close, or linger too long, risk being…twisted. The Void consumes all things. Some people find entire chunks of memories gone or altered. Emotional responses missing entirely. Thoughts, will, drive, spirit, power; all gone. You touch the Void, and the Void will touch you back. To put it in numbers? I'd say about Eighty-five percent of people that actually touch the Void get twisted into mockeries of who they once were. Not because the Void is malicious or corruptive, but because to touch your concept to the very Origin of all things, is akin to bathing in lava. Under specific circumstances, you could survive, but you would not return unscathed, unchanged, no matter what."

"And how does that apply to Miss Olette's case?"

"Well here's the thing. If two Void element natures clash, then…strange shit usually happens. The Void, as I told Aerith a while ago, is comprised of concepts. Time, Power, Space, Gravity, Death…things like that. Immaterial concepts that exist in theory but can only be 'proven' by personal experience, or things that are certain and have nearly no way of disputing. That is what it means to be Void, either you are everything, or you are nothing. When it comes to the Void, especially with two clashing wielders, it come down to a simple question: Do you exist?"

"How so?"

"Simple. The Void, is a timeless concept. Existing since long before even my time. The Origin, and the Destination of all things. It is the ultimate Nothing. But it can be Observed. And that's what happens. If one's will is too weak, the Void will consume them completely, break them down, tear them apart."

"But you just said that will happen regardless."

"That I did. But you're inferring I mean that the Void is active in any way. The Void is just there. It knows no will, no hate, no rage, no drive, no love, no anything. It just is. It doesn't move, it doesn't change, it does absolutely fuck-all. But because of its nature as Nothing, it turns everything that comes into contact with it, into itself. The speed of which that happens, varies. If your concept of being, your meaning, your reason, your very existence, is too weak? The Void will consume you entirely, in little time. But if your concept of existence is strong, then the Void takes longer to consume you, and you can even walk away from it, relatively fine."

"How?"

"By knowing yourself. Will is one of the things the Void governs, as an Aspect. If your Will is strong enough, you can combat the degenerative effects of being around the Void, potentially even become immune to them. Because those are the passive effects. Things that happen just because you're within range to be affected. The strongest concept a person can hold, is the concept of I Am. It is a self-reflection that causes an existential loop that secures your existence in a given space. It is the measure of how strong someone's words or actions can alter your perceptions, sense of being, or personality. The stronger your sense of I Am is, the more solid your grasp on your existence, thus the harder it is for others, Void included, to alter you without your conscious, or subconscious permission. Those with powerful enough magical backgrounds, can even erect temporal loops that negate nearly all damage to their person, if their sense of Self is strong enough."

"That is quite impressive."

"Yeah. How this ties into Olette is that she is, according to Lyco, an Observer. And an Observer is someone who has a strong enough sense of Will that not only do they have a near unbreakable declaration of I Am, but they are capable of declaring the existence of other things. To be under an Observer is to mean that someone else is maintaining your existence through their will. They are saying to the greater World, That Is, in reference to a concept. Their idea of reality is now having an effect on the rest of the world outside of themselves."

"And Miss Olette has that power?"

"Apparently. The reason why this is a problem is because Observers declare existence. Most only have the power to say that someone or something exists, where normally it may not. But particularly powerful Observers, can also say that something doesn't exist. When attempting to Observe something or someone, you are asking it, at its core What are you? Whether you know what or who someone is, is irrelevant because by querying it at all, you're acknowledging that something exists there. Knowing what it is just allows you to determine what that something is. Those special Observers, can simply decide You Are Not, and the thing in question will begin to break down at an accelerated pace."

"And Miss Lycoris believes Miss Olette can do such a thing?"

"Seems that way. While there's a difference in Observers capabilities, any standard Observer can 'evolve' into one that is capable of declaring nonexistence. Because of this, all Observers are potential threats. I'm guessing Lyco feared Olette grasping her existence, and deciding 'you do not exist' before Lyco's concept was able to fight it off."

"And that ties into the scar, how?"

"Right. Rift Scars are the general term for what happens when a Void…well…happens. They're clefts in concepts of reality left behind when something interferes with a Void process. In this case, Lycoris tried to cut down Olette before she could become a threat, but likely a combination of lack of power, and Olette's own sense of I Am was enough to have her survive the attack. Lycoris is on the level of a World, but might not have been at that point. And while she's got more than enough power to declare the nonexistence of something, since she wasn't at the level of strength needed to completely override Olette's concept of self, Olette's sense of I Am defeated, if only just barely, Lycoris' command of You Are Not."

"And that left behind the scar."

"Yes, the Rift Scar, known as the physical manifestation of the Void-touched. The 'rift' is just one of the many names given to the immaterial plane that exists between Existence and Nothingness. If you would imagine a sphere, and then a bubble around that sphere, hovering just centimeters away from the sphere's surface, but never touching? That space is where the Rift is. To narrow it down further? Dark Corridors? They're the shadow of the original linked pathways between worlds. The original links may have been broken, even if many were re-forged by Sora, but the remnants, the echoes of those links, will exist as long as the worlds do."

Eraqus nodded. And Seth continued.

"The Rift, is more…the sea in which all worlds float. Where Dark Corridors are akin to tunnels, the Rift is the ground those tunnels run through. It, like the Void it touches, has no defined shape or form. Only a powerful Observer can enter the Rift without consequence, let alone attempt to traverse it to go from place to place. A Rift Scar is the manifestation on the physical plane, where two Voids clashed, but neither was defeated."

"Yet why did it react to you?"

"I am the Voidwalker. The one who travels the Void with nigh impunity. The Void is my home, the Rift my domain. Its power and concept are available to me at any given moment, because in essence, for multiple reasons, I am a Void of my own right. Because of my designation of Voidwalker, and my tie to Lyco herself, the origin of the Rift Scar, I was able to perceive it. And it manifested itself from my close proximity, mostly because I was trying to figure out what that damn noise was. Because I was actively looking for it, it was revealed."

"Thank you. I return to my original question. Is there no other way to heal her?"

"…without a Cauldron? Maybe one. Maybe. She would have to become a Resident of my World."

"That sounds-

"Yeah no. First off, it would be terribly unfair to her. Equivalent to running bodily into her on a street, having her fall and break her arm, and then suing her for damage to what I was carrying. She would have to give up a large chunk of her power, and her Keyblade, just to have the chance to heal herself. That she has a Keyblade means she was chosen by her world to wield it. To do that would to be akin to taking a shit on that choice."

"I see."

"Second off, we'd have to do the Ritual. And that's just…"

"Seth."

Suddenly, Naminé! Once again the girl went generally unnoticed. Except by Seth, who knew where she was at all times, but simply ignored it.

"I want in."

"…wait what?" was his response.

"Your World. I want in."

"You…you serious right now?" If only one could see the look of abject confusion upon his face.

"I want to become a Resident."

"Naminé. Listen. That's not…that's a pretty big-

"I don't care. I don't care what I have to do."

She'd stepped closer, eyes wild.

"Girl. You don't even know what you're asking fo-

"I don't care."

It was true. He could feel it. There was an underlying…hunger…he was sensing for her. A need. A drive. Something…familiar.

Something he'd just felt the previous night.

From Ino.

"Look. Naminé. You should wait on-

"I want IN!"

"You don't even know what the ritual-

"I DON'T CARE!"

"I would have to FUCK you, Naminé!"

She stopped. The hall stopped.

And then faster than anyone could react, she'd reached down and started pulling her dress over her head.

*THOOSH*

Only to be halted in place, by two of the grey, ghostly arms.

As well as both of his own, grabbing her shoulders. The phantom limbs pinned her arms in place, crossed at her waist, clenching her dress. She didn't struggle, she didn't resist. She just stood there, staring right into his eyes.

"…goddammit woman."

"I need this. I was born unwanted. I have been jerked around, used, abused, manipulated, tossed aside, ignored, replaced! I have been a failure my entire life, nobody wanting me around, nobody caring, no place to go! Expected to sink into a consciousness I was never made from, and vanish like a good little girl."

Once again, those that knew Akira's origins, winced at the phrase…which was the exact reason Naminé picked it.

"And then you happen. You come and you change everything. You rip me out of Kairi and give me my own self. No questions asked. No recompense demanded or expected. You just did it. You brought back Ino, my biggest fuckup, you brought back Roxas the boy I was falling in love with. You gave me my life to live. And then you died. You died and I went back to being nobody. But then I drew that damn picture. That damn Tower surrounded by Pillars. And because Olette took from me, before I could grow a damn quad and take myself the boy I wanted in my life forever, I was stuck. Because I knew what her power was I asked her to look at that stupid picture. And because of that I nearly got my best friend's girlfriend obliterated, because I couldn't stop thinking about that stupid fucking Tower!"

He was silent, letting her get it all out. The hands, and his own, keeping her in place, as her eyes shimmered with…well…every conceivable emotion possible.

"And now, you're back. And that need is there again. You're talking about a world that you can just…add people to. A place, with the man who gave me myself back? A Home that I could finally be accepted at? You're fucking right I'm going to do whatever I have to, to get at that. I. Want. IN."

Slowly, cautiously, and gently, his left hand rose and cupped her cheek. Absently, his thumb wiped away a stray tear, closing his eyes and sighing.

"...The ritual involves a combination of intimacy and laying bare the emotions between us. Effectively it's a dual Succuban Soul Binding ritual as well as a test of resolve. Lycoris doesn't abide traitors at all, and those who are to be a part of my World have to be loyal to it-to me. The sex provides a physical aspect, like dance or hand seals, as well as an emotional aspect of passion. It's long since been acknowledged even in my time that willing sex between two people can forge a direct link to one another, or enhance one that's already there. At the moment of connection, two timelines temporarily merge into one. It's this moment that is the keystone of that link."

She said nothing, and the rest of the hall drunk in his words, carefully.

"The ritual is done this way because whomever is 'born' on a world is tied to it. Tied directly to its Heart, its Core. What the World means, what it is defined as, every resident of that world, everyone naturally created upon it, is given a piece of that meaning. People can betray worlds, betray homes, betray themselves. My world is a Haven. A Sanctuary. A Garden of the Lost. A place free from undue pain, from pointless battle. Only those worthy can be a part of it. Only those who are loyal. People we can trust to rise up and protect it. We protect them, all we ask is that when the time comes, if we have need, that they help protect us."

She still didn't hear anything she disagreed with.

"I can't have kids. I've got the equipment, hell I've got the materials, but they're effectively blank. Empty space. I have no code to pass on-no, that's not right. I have Code. But that Code is Nothing. That was my price. But they are fragments of Lycoris' code as well. Fill you up, use that as an anchor, as well as a corruptor. The Nothing distorts your meaning, your time, your being. And then Lyco changes it. Every fragment of your code will be analyzed, logged, and converted. Your Origin will be changed, your Existence altered. Outwardly, it's unlikely much will differ. Even your organs and everything would remain as they should be, just…possibly slightly enhanced. Your Keyblade…could possibly be lost to you. As you know it, at least. We don't know. You…would be the first Keyblade wielder we've converted."

"…what? But…but Ino-

"That…was not Ritual. That was Ino marking her territory."

The girl in question flushed slightly, but stood proud of herself.

"Not like I didn't want to do it, but nooo, Aki had to get in the way." Lycoris snarked.

"It wasn't our place to interfere. Her heart yearned for him, as mine did. Our world is one of Choice. To have attempted the Bonding at that time would have been to remove hers." Spoke Akira, softly.

"Were you expecting to change my mind? I told you, I want in. I don't care what it takes."

And then he understood. It wasn't about madness or desire. It was about loneliness. She wanted somewhere to be. Somewhere to belong. A place to call home. Where she could feel wanted. Loved.

The phantom limbs vanished, she let go of her dress, and was pulled forward, as Selh'teus Rodin acknowledged her, pulling her into his arms.

The dam broke. And with a growing wail, the blonde once-nobody burst into tears, finally releasing the anguish she'd been holding off for years. She cried, loud, agonized, body heaving sobs, and Seth just weathered it all, gladly. With a soft sigh, he gently stroked her back, not saying anything, allowing his presence to do the talking.

…I am in pain…

I know.

…I want to be loved…

I know.

…I want to be Home…

You will be, love. I promise.

A jolt ran up Lycoris' spine. She sighed. "Connection confirmed. Initiating upload process. R.B.R. on standby."

Akira just smiled to herself. One more Blade to be added in defense of my King. You will be welcome home soon, my sister.

For a moment, Kairi herself was irritated. Had they not accepted Naminé as she was? But then it hit her, and made her feel terrible. It wasn't just acceptance that Naminé was after. Naminé was…the unexpected guest. Welcome but not 'invited'. What Naminé desired, wasn't just a simple passing acceptance. She desired to be wanted. Intentionally invited. She wanted to be wanted. A reason for her existence.

With Olette taking Roxas for herself, Sora having picked Kairi, Naminé was left with…well nobody. Nobody who viewed her as more than a friend, nobody who would go beyond out of their way for her. They'd go out of their way, but not to the conceptual level she wanted. She wanted someone that wanted her to come back. Someone to go home to. Hell a home to go home to.

Not her place. She's just there. She was always just 'there'.

Naminé may have cleared up much of her rage against Kairi, but she never fully faced her pain. She couldn't. Who could the blonde have gone to? Not Sora, not without feeling like imposing even more on the boy. Not Riku in the slightest, who was still wrestling with his own demons. Not Kairi who was facing a literal manifestation of her suppressed being. Not even Roxas, nor even Ino, both of whom she felt she failed.

…but like usual…Master comes and makes the problem a reality, and then ends up fixing it. It was at this thought, that Kairi sighed, before grinning slightly and shaking her head.

Maybe I'll pay him back for this by having him scratch that itch of ours…

---

Like always, anything involving Seth either exploded beyond its initial expectations, or was a massive revelation of emotional duress. Either way, as Naminé's sobs died down, Yuffie resolved to push on.

She was my Crafting Bitch…she was happy to be called that. …because she was wanted. Because she'd found a purpose. And then all that Hope was taken from her. Again. She clearly needed a shoulder to cry on. Once again, Shishou works his magic. Still…how…?

"I feel like a bitch but I have to know." She spoke, catching Seth's attention.

"My second question. How the fuck are you even here?"

He gave a bark of a laugh. Naminé flinched, but then gave a watery giggle, at the way Yuffie posed the question.

"Luck. Pure, bullshit, legitimate what-the-fuckery."

"Elaborate, Master." Came the voice of Kairi.

"You still calling me that, Red?"

"You're still calling me Red." Came the rebuttal.

He nodded at her. "Point." He turned back to Yuffie opened his mouth to speak, then stopped. He blinked three times, then looked around. After a few moments of turning his head wildly, Naminé looked up at him, seeing him looking straight at…something. Confused, she follows his gaze noting he's staring at a particular set of drapes above them.

"Uhh…Shishou?"

He growled.

"Wh-what are you..." Naminé gently queried.

"I'm trying to get the hand-y thing to happen."

"The…hand…oh! You mean you don't…"

"Not a clue and it's really starting to-

*THOOSH*

And there it was. A single ghostly arm appearing from a distortion in the air, grabbing onto the pale violet cloth above.

"…huh. Irritation's my trigger. …that's…dumb." He mumbled.

"Why did youuaaahh!" Naminé's question was cut off as Seth had dropped down and scooped her up into his arms. The hand yanked the cloth down, before pulling it towards the banister that cordoned off the floor where the Gate was. The hand faded away as the long cloth was now suspended just beneath the banister, where Seth's Will tied the edges of the cloth to the banister itself, creating a makeshift hammock.

And then he Burst-jumped over the heads of everyone between the stairs and where he was standing next to Olette, landing on the cloth-seat, Naminé securely in his lap.

"That was…alright why." Naminé pushed.

"Word of the wise. It is entirely possible to fuck so hard your feet hurt. Even when you weren't using them." Was his response.

Marlene snorted, Kairi barked with laugher, Ino flushed but gave an embarrassed huff, and Naminé just blinked.

"Is…that something I should worry about?" she asked, tentatively.

Once again he opened his mouth to speak, but then stopped. "…the…ritual is a bit more…passion based than anything…so…I doubt…it? You'd…have to pull an Ino. …or a Lyco. …Lino? Oh god now I'm thinking of what would happen if they merged. Terrible thought, terrible thought!"

"I WILL SIT ON YOUR FACE!" came the sudden, abrupt and loud shout from…Ino, of all people.

"…huh. She beat me to it." Lycoris muttered, blinking in surprise.

"Anyway!" Seth derailed that thought. "Aliveness. Right. Long story. Pure luck. So…-

"Actually, Master, that was the reason I came here." Lycoris cut him off.

"…elaborate."

"I'd been scanning the left arm and staff you brought me-

"You mean the one you commissioned me to bring you." He cut in.

"Semantics. Anyway I found some very interesting data."

"if you're about to troll me by telling me he had a rock-dick I will find a way to confer upon you the right open hand of behavior."

"No, Daddy, I'm not going to tell you he had a fifteen foot long penis that ejaculated ma-

*THOOSH*

"ow! Dammit!"

The ghost hand had appeared, and slapped her upside the head.

"I fuckin warned a bitch."

"Bitch was warn't but didn't give a shit." Was Lycoris' retort.

"Clearly."

"Irritation, huh?"

"Seems like it."

"So're you gonna Hulk me?"

"…see if I give an actual response to that you'll probably find some way to make it sound sexual."

"Bet'cher ass I will!"

"The data?"

"No fun at all. Naminé be a dear and wiggle your ass into his crotch a bit? He's more fun when he's horny."

"Ahh…maybe another time. I'd rather not get fisted."

Pause for a moment. Let that sink in a little.

Got that image? Now. Imagine the look on Naminé's face, as she realized what she just said.

"…shit."

Well said, Naminé. Well said.

"Well…that's a kink we know not to test on her. A pity…I've always wondered what that was like."

Slowly, Selh'teus' head turned to face Akira. A very…'why' look on his face.

"Ahh…I'm sorry, my King. The opportunity was too apt not to take."

A deep sigh.

*THOOSH*

Two hands appeared. But…not directed at anyone. Just…there. Grasping at thin air, fists clenching and unclenching.

"Lycoris. Report."

There was steel in his voice. Apparently the irritation had reached its peak. The tease of a girl who liked to call him 'Daddy' stood straight up, arms snapping to her sides.

She knew that there was a line. And she knew she was very close to crossing it.

"Yes Master. The data I found suggests that Skeith was created by Gaea, specifically to hunt and destroy you."

The change was blatant. The tease, the flirt, the fun had just vanished from her voice. Direct and to the point. No nonsense. It was as if she had changed into a completely different person.

"Figured that out already. Continue."

"Not only that, but Skeith was equipped with an Anti-Zero Causality engine."

"And that did…?"

"It was what made all of your original efforts against Skeith, worthless."

"How."

"Gaea fit Skeith with a fragment of your original Code, allowing Skeith to have a form of Superiority Resonance Effect when in battle against you. No matter how much power you wielded, Skeith would be a step above. Skeith would always be a half second faster, a slight bit stronger, a mite more durable than anything you dished out. Gaea feared the power of Zero turned against her, and equipped Skeith to be a sort of 'Zero Killer'."

"I see."

"That's not all. Gaea equipped Skeith as well with what I'm calling a 'Gaean Erasure Clause'. Effectively, Skeith was not wielding the Data Drain the way we know it. Skeith was wielding a device tailored to destroying anything with a code line that read 'Of Gaea'. The more prominent the code was, the more effective the erasure."

"So when Miri was hit with it…she broke instantly because she was still partially made from Gaea's code. But…wait."

"That's about right. Inversely, Skeith's battle records show that it wielded that Erasure Clause on Alicia, Naminé and Roxas, but to minimal effect. There was no loss of cognition or ability, just pure damage dealt, and even that was easily recovered."

"…how the fuck…wait."

"You've figured it out then."

"Their Code didn't read 'of Gaea' enough. It worked…partially…who took the least damage?"

"That would be a tie between Alicia and Naminé, Master."

"…Alicia's Origin wouldn't read 'of Gaea'…because she was dead. The Greater World acknowledged her end, absorbed back into the three sisters…restored by outside means…"

Lycoris nodded. "Very similar to our Residency Ritual. Her Origin had the least amount of Gaea within it. The same with Naminé. Roxas out of the three has the highest amount of Gaea in his code, and even that's not much more."

"That makes sense. Continue."

"Oddly enough, the Skeith you defeated was the second incarnation. Its data claims that the first was destroyed after you were Erased, by Ino, Kairi, Naminé and Alicia."

"Eh? How'd that work?"

"A surge of power that put Ino on par with Zero of Gaea…only…she had become the Zero of Tia. The Drivers stopped working, and those fighting Skeith were close to defeat, but Ino reactivated your old Driver, and in the process restored Naminé's and Kairi's. Kairi's driver seemed to have unlocked a new upgrade but Naminé's was the same. Alicia was granted a Keyblade and Driver from her Birth World as well…granting her access to the power of Valkyrie again."

"So…two Demi-God, one Goddess and one Aspect class beings against Skeith, none of which bearing a true Gaean Origin, let alone a Zero of Gaea nature…"

"Thus the first Skeith was destroyed, quite handily. I haven't managed to piece the whole battle back together but when I do I'll be sure to show you. What I've seen is rather impressive."

"I bet. But you said the one I wiped was the second."

"Yes. The Second Skeith was created by Gaea using the same parameters of the first, only that one was directed to hunt Worlds. Gaea sent that Skeith to destroy worlds of Keyblades, in an attempt to weaken those of the Light Realm that had defeated the first Skeith."

"…shit."

"Yes…at least ten worlds were destroyed before it detected your return to the Realm of Light."

"Survivors?"

"Unknown."

"There were survivors." Naminé cut in. Both Lycoris and Selh'teus looked at her.

"Tinkerbell was the first. Kairi…did some weird thing where she spoke the Language of World's Heart and Tinkerbell came in like a comet. Over the last year, various offworlders have been showing up with Keyblades, all sent to Sora's side by their world's Heart, just before it was destroyed."

"Do you have numbers?"

"Only a few. We don't know if that's how many worlds were destroyed or if that's only how many Keybearers survived."

"Spill?"

"Deep Jungle, Port Royal, Atlantica, Neverland, Pride Rock…Destiny Islands…"

"Destiny Islands?! When the hell-

"You…don't know?" Naminé was surprised.

"…know what…?"

"Seth…Destiny Islands was destroyed before you got your body back two years ago."

He was floored. "…what?!"

"I meant to tell you…" Kairi half-shouted. "It just…never came up…"

"How…do you forget to tell me your home is gone?!"

"More pressing things kept popping up, Seth." Naminé said, gently, reaching up and grasping his chin, forcing him to face her directly. "It wasn't anyone's fault, really. The running theory is that the battle at the World's Heart was too much."

He just looked at her, astonished.

"It's not an inaccurate theory." Lycoris clarified. "Normally, the Heart of a World is a somewhat fragile thing. Like an Egg. Capable of sustaining damage, but not so much. A battle of that magnitude…the energies released would indeed threaten instability of the Heart, unless specific measures were immediately taken. Which…I'm assuming they weren't."

"…fuck."

"It's alright." Naminé said softly. "Well…ok no it's not. But it's…it's in the past. Too far in the past. Even if you knew, there would be nothing that could be done. Selphie is still alive. Tidus and Wakka are still alive. We don't know about anyone else but…"

"…yeah." He shook his head. "tch…pointless…"

"Some things…we cannot give meaning to, Master." Lycoris spoke.

"…yeah. …was that it?"

"With this data I may be able to…come up with a different method of binding people to our World. But that…is a project for later. We still need to find Keepers for the Lighthouses anyway."

"Right. Good. See what more you can dig up about that. Anyway we…got off track. Yuffie's question. Long story."

---

A long time ago, before any of this even had the inkling of starting. I was content. Not happy but content. I had my sister, my apprentice, my wife…and we traveled together. Needless to say, thanks to the efforts of Elle and Lynn, well…we had fun. But there was still something missing. The War was still going on. For the most part we'd managed to skirt the major battlefields, slipping into towns and cities, and slipping out just as quietly. Gather supplies, sometimes have a roof to sleep under for a night or two.

But we didn't have a home. Nowhere to call ours. Nowhere safe.

She may have been ninja, a killer, assassin for hire, but Midori-sensei wanted one thing: a place of safety from the War. And I had long agreed with her. So while I was content with what I had, even if I missed Midori-sensei something fiercely, I wanted more. Not merely for myself, but for my girls as well. One night...while laying awake beneath the open sky…I saw a shooting star. I don't know how many of your worlds have the tale, but back then, on my world, we had a bit of folklore. When you see a shooting star, make a wish, and it will come true.

So I made a wish. I made a wish that I could find a place to call home, a place of my own, where I and the ones I cherished most, would be safe from the War.

And then, one by one, over the next month, I lost all three of them.

Then Earth ended.

---

"The World ended…but the wish…didn't." he concluded.

"Well what happened next?" Asked Naminé, for everyone.

"Luck. Pure, unadulterated, bullshit luck."

She tilted her head.

"The wish stuck. I'd long since learned how to imbue a fragment of self into whatever I was doing. A sort of enhancement, the more self I poured into my efforts, usually the better the return. Almost every world speaks of how cooking always tastes better when 'love' is put into it. Well it's like that, only less 'love' and more 'self'." He spoke.

"The wish, stuck to the shooting star, which contained a fragment, an imprint, an accidental piece of his soul, his concept. The infinitely meaningless piece of space rock passed beyond Earth's atmosphere, just large enough to continue moving, where eventually, long after Earth's ending, it reached the Event Horizon of a black hole. But the Wish, being made of immaterial concept, of soul, did not get destroyed when its container was. It passed beyond the Event Horizon, to the core of the black hole, the very gateway directly to the Void itself, where it remained." Came the voice of Lycoris.

"That wish, grew over time, drawing from the cosmic energies of concepts at the moment just before their erasure. It was sustained, it was connected to its originator, sleeping, until it finally woke." Seth spoke.

"Like Nu!" Exclaimed Kairi, putting the information together.

"Yes. Like Nu, the Wish gestated within the core of the Void, a solid concept of something in a world of nothing. A contradiction that went against the laws of nature, of reality, but still was." He returned.

"That's all well and good but what came of it?" probed Riku.

"Lycoris did." Seth returned, simply.

"Wait…what?"

"I am Lycoris_Ansul_Infinitia. I am the Core of the World within the depths of the Void that houses the Tower Infinitia. I am the Eternal Forge. And I am…what came of Daddy's wish for a home."

Unknown to anyone, something within the hearts of Alicia, Naminé and Ino, flared with…pride, when Lycoris spoke. They were the only ones who noticed the sensation, but they said nothing, not realizing what it was.

"Somehow, a series of contradictions cancelled each other out, allowing for life to be created in a realm of the lifeless. A Something, in a world of Nothing." Seth said.

"When Skeith erased Daddy the first time, I had just barely enough strength as a concept, to reach out to his many pieces of self that were scattered. The Gaean Erasure Clause should have wiped him out completely, but that would have caused a major contradiction in Gaea itself. Gaea survived her destruction, because Daddy survived. Unintentionally, she had anchored herself to him. She sought to destroy Zero, as retribution for breaking the contract, but she couldn't erase him completely without erasing herself as well. So the laws of balance kicked in, giving a brief moment where while fragmented, Daddy could still be made whole again."

Naminé, on his lap, looked up at him in shock. He just shrugged. "I gave up. I'd lost Miri, who had broken her promise. I'd already been emotionally and mentally exhausted at that point. I just…gave up. Accepted my end…or so I thought."

"There's a moment, before things enter the Void and become part of its Great Nothing, where they get analyzed. Their concept, their time gets logged and acknowledged before it is erased. Because I was already within the Core of the Void, when that happened to Daddy's fragments, I was able to grab them and pull them to me, using myself as an anchor. And slowly, I was able to piece them together."

"I'm going to guess that's where Olette ended up accidentally Observing Lycoris, leading to Lycoris to lash out in fear and retaliation." Seth cut in.

"It was. I didn't know who or what was Looking, only that someone was trying to see you. I didn't care who or what it was, I just wanted it gone. You were still far too unstable, far too easily…shattered."

"And that's why you put me under that…test."

"…I'm sorry Daddy. But I don't regret it. I couldn't exist unless you did, and you couldn't exist unless you chose to. If you had chosen not to keep going…"

"Tch…yeah…neither of us would be here." He growled, annoyed.

"What…what did she do…?" Melody asked, gently, not far from being right in front of him.

"That's-

"She made me see them again." He cut Lycoris off. Immediately the pale lavender haired girl silenced herself, bowing her head.

"Them?" Melody queried.

"His girls." Alicia spoke, shocked. "He saw his most precious again."

"…yeah. Apparently Elle had an inkling something was going to happen and tried to make a…well it wasn't quite a Marble but it was something. It worked…but Lyco…enhanced it. There was a ritual I performed, before the end…involving their blood. It ended up tying their concepts to mine. If…if we'd known how…I probably could have brought them back at some point. But when Lyco pieced me back together, she forced the failsafe to trigger. And…I was faced with Echoes of all three of them. One after another. When I reached Elle…she told me she'd seen a lot of what was to come. Or at least, she saw me happy, but without them. Which she took as having seen the end of the War. She saw what Tia had planned…saw what Aki had done…and planned it so when I woke up, I'd probably panic. And when I did, her failsafe would kick in, and draw me to face their Echoes."

"But…that didn't happen?" Alicia queried again.

He shook his head. "No. Elle's trigger was my natural waking. Mansex woke me early by ripping my soul out of my body and jacking it. A lot of my memories were missing, or faded, and her specific trigger never went off. So I was confused, disoriented, and…not entirely myself. Not all of me at least. …anyway. The problem for a while was that…I had shape, but not form. She wasn't strong enough to give me a body, since she was kind of in the same place."

"So I found a world close to the Void. And put him on it."

"Lordran. That…that was a wild trip, honestly."

"And where I finally found you again…My King." Akira spoke up.

"…yeah."

"That sounds like a story." Alicia said.

"Yeah…but too long for right now."

"Even so…I'd like to see this world you were 'reborn' on."

"Yeah…about that. That's not very possible."

"Why not?"

"It's gone. Lyco ate it."

Cue silence for five seconds…before it got really loud.

"WHAT?!"

"Calm your tits people, it was a Dead World anyway."

"What the fuck is your pro-

*THOOSH*

This time…it was a white hand that appeared, crashing down on Leon and shutting him up.

"Keep your judgments to yourself human. If you stay silent then perhaps you will find your answer easier." Snarled the white haired Queen.

Snarled. Her eyes promised a painful end if Leon kept talking. She knew. She still remembered Yuffie's complaints. She still remembered the turmoil he'd evoked in her heart. And Yuffie was close to her King. And anyone close to her King would be protected violently, unless he commanded otherwise.

Akira Marie Rodin swore he would never be alone again.

It was immediately after that thought that she felt something grasp her whole body. The sensation was familiar, and she let herself go lax, being pulled over to Selh'teus' side. His arm snaked around her waist, pulling her close, where she allowed her glare to fade away. She leaned into his grasp, letting herself relax.

He sighed, shook his head, and then stretched slightly, planting a gentle kiss at the top of her head.

"Nuisance."

But there was love in his voice as he spoke, thus the Dark Queen smiled.

"Lordran was a Dead World. And before anyone asks, a Dead World is a world that cannot form a Keyblade. Basically there are two types of worlds, the worlds you all know, mostly in the Realm of Light, and then Dead Worlds. Dead Worlds are worlds that have no real complete story. They have stories, but something prevents them from being complete. There is no end to the story of the world. It loops, constantly." He explained.

"Dead Worlds, effectively cannot form Keyblades due to not having a complete tale. There is no reason enough, for the Heart to become strong enough to make one. Because the world's Time is constantly looping, the same events repeating themselves over and over with no defined end, the world's Heart becomes weakened." Lycoris finally spoke again.

"Some worlds have time loops as part of their story. Like Alicia's world. To paraphrase, effectively Alicia's Kingdom gets wiped out by Hrist, because of what her father did. This leads to Alicia having Silmeria ripped from her, but the Undead Lord, Brahms, whom Silmeria once spared, takes her soul instead, keeping it safe in his Transient Castle. Over time, the Valkyrie Cycle shifts to Lenneth, whom ends up breaking the seal on her memories, becoming locked away and almost destroyed, but with the help of an Asshole, revives, storms Valhalla during Ragnarok, and ends up becoming powerful enough to replace Odin.

At this time, she lets the Asshole, Lezard Valeth remain alive, because she viewed him as an amusing nuisance and nothing more, but he was obsessed with Lenneth to the point where he used a forbidden power to go back in time, set himself up to be part of history's events, and led into the timeline that our Alicia comes from. This timeline is altered in that while Lenneth still goes back in time, is still sensed by Hrist, and Alicia's Kingdom is still wiped out, it's Valeth who takes Silmeria's soul, using it to boost his power enough to match Odin. In the timeline Valeth came from, Alicia dies at the top of Yggdrasil, trying to find a way to right the terrible wrongs the Gods had done, but in this timeline, because Valeth stole Silmeria's soul, he performed Soul Transfusion on Odin, pushing him into his spare body, and then took the Gungnir for himself, leaving Alicia behind, alive.

With the help of the disembodied soul of the man who was Odin's spare body, she gained a power very similar to that of the Valkyries themselves, and went on to lead a crusade against Valeth's machinations, even managing to win over Hrist, Odin's most faithful, in the process. The Lenneth from Valeth's time, came back and met with the group, before Valeth took her soul, having gained power on par of a God himself. Giving her body up as template, after freeing Lenneth's soul, the three Valkyrie sisters, Silmeria, Hrist, and Lenneth, fused their powers together within her, recreating the original Valkyrie with Alicia as template.

Odin feared the Original Valkyrie's power so much he split her into three, so all three brought back together, were more than enough to shut down and end Valeth for good. Alicia's world remains, because while there was a time loop that dictates events of her world's Story, it has an end."

"That was…a lot of words." Said Kairi.

"Yeah and now here's even more. The difference between Alicia's world and Lordran, is that Lordran has a story, without an ending. Lordran's story is simple: There were Dragons. That's it. And then suddenly Fire. And Fire gave birth to Chaos. Where originally there were only just Dragons, now there were concepts. Heat and Cold, Life and Death, Light and Dark. Humans. Gods. Giants. Everything in between. The drew from the power of the Flame. And from the Flame, came Souls. Powerful Souls. The Souls of Lords. Those who Lived, fought against the Dragons, who were more like elementals than anything else. Immortal. Unending. Destroy one? Big whoop, it'll come back some time later.

But they won. And yet, like all things, over time, the Flame began to fade. So a God-King, Gwyn, set out to restore it. A woman, a Witch, tried to recreate the flame, but failed, mutating herself, her son, and the majority of her many daughters into terrible monsters, and opening the way for Demons to come. Gwyn extended the life of the Flame, but even with his efforts, it began to fade once again. And as it did, came an inexplicable curse. The curse of the Darksign. Those with the Darksign would find themselves dying, as all things do, only to revive. They became Undead. For the most part, many Undead still were like normal people, save their corpse-like appearance. But those whom had died too often, died and revived far too many times, became lost. They became Hollow.

Fearing the Hollow, many lands locked away, sealed, slew, or caged the Undead, let alone anyone found with a Darksign. Child, Teen, Adult, Elder, it didn't matter, if it had a Darksign, or was found to be Undead, it was captured, and dragged off, away from civilization.

Lordran's story states that there is a 'Chosen Undead', a single person from an unknown background who manages to escape the Northern Undead Asylum, and make pilgrimage on the wings of a gigantic crow, to Lordran, the Land of Ancient Lords. There, they would open the way through Sen's Fortress, and reach the Kingdom of Anor Londo, the place where Gods used to dwell. Once making it to the throne of the Queen of Sunlight, Gwynevere, a giant of a woman with equally giant fucking tits, like seriously you could practically swim in her cleavage; the Chosen Undead would be given the Lordvessel, and tasked with filling it with the Souls of Lords, to open the way to the Kiln of the First Flame.

There, the Chosen Undead would find the madness driven Gwyn, slay him, and decide.

Sacrifice themselves the way Gwyn did to perpetuate the dying flame? Or turn away and usher in the Age of Dark."

"That's…terrible." Naminé said.

"Yeah. But it gets worse. That alone isn't the reason why Lordran is a Dead World. The reason, is that there is no end. The events just loop. There is no known hero, they have no solid background, no solid knowledge or ending. Who was the 'Chosen Undead'? Were they Male? Female? Did they wander the world before being captured, were they a Knight to a kingdom before giving themselves up? Were they a practitioner at the Dragon College of Mages? Were they a walker of the Clergy? A sellsword for hire? So barren and depraved that they were just barely clinging to Humanity? Who did they speak to? Did they join the Princess Guard upon reaching Gwynevere's throne? Were they seduced by the powers offered by Darkstalker Kaathe? Or did they join the Warriors of Sunlight, a group of Undead that used the variable nature of time and space in Lordran to assist one another, a group affectionately known as 'Sunbros'?

Did they even meet Solare? Did they bother to speak with Andre? Did they restore Anastacia after Lautrec killed her and took her soul as a Fire Keeper? Hell did they even bother to hunt him down? Did they save Reah? Did they kill or spare Patches? Did they burn in the Flame or let the Dark take over? None of these questions are answered, because all of these questions have multiple answers. There is no solid answer to any of it. No completion to the tale. And even then? Because of all this? No matter what happens, it will just happen again.

If the Chosen Undead kept the flame going? The curse returns, the story starts over, they become the new 'Gwyn' and someone has to kill them. If the Chosen Undead let the age of Dark happen? The curse ends, but it returns again when the flame is re-sparked at some time down the line. 'Gwyn' is born again to set himself alight to extend the Flame, which leads to the curse returning, which leads to the Chosen Undead having to exist again.

In my world, our stories had a concept tied to them. 'Canon' it was called. Canon is the idea of a story's exact events as written by the creator of it. Canon means that if that story had a world, those would be the exact events of that world, as was intended, as would happen without outside interference, such as a Keyblade wielder, or an Observer declaring otherwise. The completed, Canon events of a world, would lead to that world being capable of spawning a Keyblade. Lordran was a Dead World. Eventually it would just fade away. Lycoris consumed it, ending its never-ending story through sheer destruction, and used its otherwise wasted energies, to start laying the groundwork for our world.

It was an unhappy world of pain and suffering, sadness and hate and fear. It being gone, does all of its inhabitants a favor. No more pain. No more fear. Because there was no end to it."

"How can you say that? How can you really, really say that?" Pushed Aerith, the one amongst them all who could best understand the Heart of a World.

"Because I told him to." Akira responded.

"I sense hearts. All hearts. All hearts and all natures. That world's heart was in pain. In agony. It screamed and screamed, begged for either a savior, or death. It was in my Domain. The Realm of Darkness. There are many worlds native to it. Worlds of war, destruction, hatred, death, sadness. But many of them live. Many of them can create Keyblades, should one be needed. This one, under my Jurisdiction, could not. It screamed in agony eternal. I told him, to have Lycoris consume it. To set its inhabitants free from their eternal cycle of pain.

The Realm of Darkness is my domain. And there, I am God. I decide what world exists and doesn't. And I decided to allow the world of my King, to continue, where Lordran was dying."

Nobody…had ever really heard her speak like that. Power, was in her voice. Certainty. Conviction.

"There are survivors. Because that world was native to the Realm of Darkness, at a point, Miri was able to sense me. And because of how the world's nature worked anyway…we could…save a few people. I wanted to save Solare but…I didn't reach him in time. And…Lorentius went Hollow after trying to find Quelana. Dusk was…killed before I could get Miri to her. And I'd made the mistake of not going to the Ash Lake before Siegmeyer went down and died to the Hydra…"

"But you saved Anastacia. And Quelana. And restored Sif, and Quelaag and Quelaan. And saved Seiglinde, and Reah is absolutely taken with you. You did well, Master." Lycoris cut him off.

Akira nodded. "She is right, my King. Seigmeyer was a fool. Lovable, but a fool. Solare was desperate to find meaning in himself, and you cannot be held at fault for not reaching him before he was consumed by those creatures. Lorentius was weak, simple as that, compared to Quelana who held centuries of experience and training. Andre would never have left his forge, facing the end of the world with dignity, and a blade in his hand. Patches tried to kill you, and I was most pleased when you impaled him upon your blade and tossed him into the pit he tried to send you to. Gwyndolin never would have left Anor Londo, and their Knight never leaving their side. You did your best, my King. That there are survivors at all, is due to your efforts."

He shook his head. "You mean yours. Without your Keyblade-

"My Keyblade, is yours, my King. As is all that is me."

He sighed. "Nuisance."

He shook his head. "Anyway, after that, we started looking for more Dead Worlds to consume, to boost Lycoris' power and concept. Theoretically, consuming a world that could produce a Keyblade would have had a much larger, wider effect on her but…if I'm going to do something terrible I want it done right. Eventually we managed to gather enough power to grant Lyco the ability to 'Cut' open gateways into the Realm of Light."

"This had its own problem, however. The gateways would be one-way, and entirely random. The Door to Darkness was closed, thus cutting off the pathway into the Realm of Light from the Realm of Dark. And the Door to Light was only open on the side of the Realm of Light. So we had no way of knowing where someone would end up. We did, however, find Traverse Town, which is a Border World, teetering between Light and Dark, where many end up when misplaced."

"And that's where they found Us." Spoke Rinoa, from near, but not exactly next to, Leon. Barret and Selphie nodded as well.

"The First of the Travelers. Those who would brave the unknown gates and plant the Beacons." Lycoris spoke with pride.

"I couldn't go myself, because while I didn't know it at the time, Lyco was afraid of Skeith finding me, and wiping me again."

"Before I was ready for it, at least."

"Yeah. So we basically Hired those three. They'd go through the gates Lyco made, plant a Beacon, and then return."

"What is a Beacon?" Eraqus queried.

"Fragments of Lycoris. Pieces of her existence made to act as triangulation markers to determine where a World is, and how close it was to our goal." Seth answered.

"Master wished to reach this world, to find out if Kairi and the others managed to escape Skeith safely, to regroup, basically. But being that worlds move through the Greater Space, and we had no direct entrance into the Realm of Light, I had to guess. I could Cut a path, but where that path would go, was unknown." Lycoris continued.

"The Beacons would be both placement markers, so Lyco could open gates back and forth, as well as methods to connect the worlds to her. Since we couldn't have her just keep devouring worlds, Dead or not, we came up with a sort of Resonance idea. Each world we planted a Beacon on, would have a bit of its energy drained, as a price for connecting it to Lycoris. The connection would allow that world to basically communicate with her, where she could then report problems to others. It was a win-win situation. She gets more energy to grow her Concept, and the Worlds now begin having a communication hub, for information to be shared between worlds, faster." Seth took over.

"As well, because they were fragments of myself, we could use those to triangulate where this World was. My Cuts became more focused, as effectively with each World a Beacon was placed upon, a 'map' of the Greater Space was filled in. It becomes easier to 'aim' for a specific World, without a Beacon, if one or two Worlds around it, have them. A sort of phantom image of what that World was, would be seen, and I could make a more defined Cut. Honestly though, it was pure chance that I Cut a path to this World yesterday. We have maybe one nearby World marked." Lycoris said.

"And now with Skeith gone, I can wander freely again." Seth said.

"And that's why you should take Alicia on a date!" called Ino.

"Exactly. …wait what."

"Ino! What are you-

"I second this." Spoke Naminé. "It's really not right, Seth. You bring her back, take care of her a little bit, but then never spend any time with her? That's just not fair to play with a girl's heart like that."

"Dafuq you-

"I third this motion." Came, oddly enough Aerith. "But keep in mind you still owe me a bedding, dammit."

"I owe you noth-

Suddenly his vision flickered. The sound of loud static erupted in his head. The world shifted and distorted…and he found himself back at the Gate.

Before him, stood a familiar brunette topped figure, eyes shimmering with exhausted mirth behind her glasses. A half-grin formed on her face as she cocked her head to the right, placing her hands on her hips.

"No more running."

It only lasted a few seconds. Less than one, for the rest of them, but no less than ten, for him. Yet it held all the importance in the world. His head lowered and he signed.

"…right…sorry Elle…"

Looking up, he stared right at Aerith.

"We will discuss that, at a later occasion." He said with finality. To his annoyance, she just smirked. "I'm holding you to that." She said.

He just rolled his eyes and looked at Alicia.

"Well? Is this a thing?"

She smiled softly. "We haven't really spent any time together since the first day you brought me back. It's been…" she trailed off, before grinning and taking a page out of Kairi's book. Err…Kairi's newer book.

"It's been one shitstorm after another. It would be nice…to have some time with you to myself."

"We really should catch up anyway…" he admit. "Fine fine."

"Yes!" Ino pumped her fist into the air.

"Ino why the hell are you so excited about this?" He asked, very confused.

"Because I'm winning at the moment and want her to catch up?" the once-nobody replica said.

"You…oh goddammit Ino." Seth facepalmed.

"…I cannot believe you actually said that." Alicia spoke, flushing.

"Honestly? Neither can I. Kinda slipped out." Ino admit.

---

A/N: Wait shouldn't have been as long. Only was so long cause I'm…torn between multiple concepts for next chapter. Thought about putting it here, decided today: "fuck that". So. Fuck it. Here you go. Talky Talky Talky chapter.

Also, unmentioned in chapter but the reason Lycoris is such a sex-fiend? She is born of a fragment of Seth when he had a very healthy and active sex life and libido. She's where all of his lust-class hormones went, and she wears them proudly. Thus, a lot of her non-combative rituals and spells are generally passion and sex based.

Spoilers, you get to see one in particular, next chapter. No, I won't tell you what it is. I'll give a hint though, the nature of it is in the Aria she and Miri weaved, to restore Seth as Selh'teus.

Lunexion: Sorry for the double wait. Should have been up over a month ago. No. really, this should have. It's been done for over a month, I've just been sitting on my damn hands trying to put too much in one go. Really we're getting towards the final few plot points, but while I have those plot points, getting to them is…it's a bitch.

Also fucking hell how am I gonna do that one fight…anyway. Seth gets closure, and people get some answers, and Aki gets pissed (which is fucking rare innit?) but there's one more dramabomb about to happen. MAYBE two. The second one I'm trying to figure out how to work in…

ScourgeofShadowsKarx: …well. I actually remember the shit-eating grin I sported when I saw that review pop up in my email. Always makes a writer proud to know that their work is looked forward to. Ride's almost over…but we've still got a ways to go. Depression is still a titbitch of a program. But those little moments of clarity help step forward, even if it's only an inch at a time. I'm glad someone still got that burst of emotion I was aiming for but I still say it wasn't good enough. Maybe I can wire a few more bursts in to sort of complete the setup. Still, next chapter sets the stage for beginning the final few plotlines of this story. While not written, I have the Final three confrontations already set up and ready to go. And I know where everyone is supposed to end up.

Doesn't mean they'll go there though, by the time I reach it, but at least I know where I want them to go.