Ruby stared at the glass of milk blankly, cheek laying across the table they were seated at before she reached over and downing it in one shot. A tired sigh slid from her lips, blinking, "I still feel like death."

"It's milk," the Master said, "not some sort of ambrosia. Of course you look like you got one foot in the grave, it's because you've got both of 'em in. Just avoid taking a plunge, eh?"

"Thanks," Ruby said, laying her head across the table and staring at the people walking by the window. The people on this world were weir~d, that one had a snake head, and that one had an extra joint in her fingers, and that one- "Holy crap what happened to my eye!?"

Ruby jerked up, staring at the red pupil in the glass. That wasn't normal, that wasn't normal at all! It wasn't blood or something was it?

"Whaddya-? Oh, don't worry about that," the Master said, waving his hand, "little gift from ol' Diabolos. Just do yourself a favor and don't overuse it."

"Why?" Ruby asked, sitting back down as the Master called to a passing waitress in… some other language. That was gonna get annoying.

"No it won't," the Master said, as another glass of milk, and a mug of hot chocolate, was placed in front of Ruby, a mug of coffee put in front of him, "give it a couple of hours, you'll be good to go. As for why you don't want to overdo it… you ever vomited out crystallized blood before?"

"...I see where this is going," Ruby said with a tired sigh, reaching up to rub her eyes.

"Have you ever wanted to vomit up blood before?" The Master said, adding several sugar packets to his coffee and then an equal number of creams, "Well, I'm waiting for a response, Lux."

"No," Ruby said, downing the milk and leaning her head back.

"Then don't go messin' around with that, understand?" The Master said, raising the coffee mug to his hood and drinking it.

"Yeah," Ruby said, touching her eye before drinking the hot chocolate, eyes drifting back outside, "What's up with this place?"

"World where things went different, and people started waking up with powers," the Master said, putting down his mug, "And so I don't get too many odd looks for doing this."

Ruby glanced as he gestured around his hooded head, "Do you even know what you look like under that anymore?"

"I still got a face under this, Lux," the Master said, pushing a plate of bacon and eggs towards her, "Now, eat up. We've got a rough day ahead of us."

"Why?" Ruby said, "throwing me onto another world where everyone's gonna try to kill me?"

"No," the Master said, "Worse. We're goin' looking for a house."

"...What."

"A house. You know? A place to stay? Never hurts to have a safehouse in some backwater world where nobody will come to. I've got plenty."

"Then why are we looking for one?" Ruby asked, holding her head.

"Because they're mine, Lux. You need your own," the Master said, "trust me, you'll thank me later."

"Well, if that isn't the most menacing thing I've heard in several days," Ruby muttered, before picking up a piece of bacon.

"It'll be fine," the Master said, waving his hand, "and when we're done, and you're not almost dead, then I'll pummel you in training."

Nevermind, that was the most menacing thing she had heard in days.

- X Braig X-

Luxu sat at a terminal in the castle, carefully editing 'his' research to remove anything that could lead to the opposite direction for Ansem then the Master's intentions. It was gonna leave the notes a lot more bare bones by the time he was done with it, which was a double edged sword if there ever was one. It'd take longer to get things into a place where they needed it, but also wouldn't raise a slew of extra questions if it was rudimentary.

'Braig' had never been particularly passionate about his research like Even or Ienzo (what was the point in rediscovering something that had already been discovered on another world, that he had already learned at least once?), so him suddenly whipping out gigabits of data on the heart was gonna send red flags screaming through the castle like nothing else. None of his colleagues were dumb, despite the quite front of Dilan and Aeleus, and both of them were sharp enough to put together that if Braig suddenly pulled out a lot of data on something like this, he wanted it done quickly and would move to stymie him at every turn if not outright send him on the run as they asked how many people experimented on to get the data. But give enough to Ienzo and Even to wet their appetite and believe he had just extrapolated form Ansem's data on Xehanort, and their morals would loosen quickly enough, and they, in turn, would get Aeleus to play along, who would get Dilan working on it.

"Braig," speak of the devil, Braig turned enough so he could see the spear-wielding apprentice approach him, face tight, "are you busy?"

"Depends," Briag said, "What's up, Dil?"

"Don't-" Dilan started, before sighing, "Aeleus and I require your assistance. We suspect a pair of children got into the castle, Isa and Lea. Can you locate them for us?"

"Yeah," Braig said, flicking off the terminal with a stretch, space magic warping through the familiar walls of the castle.

"Thank you," Dilan said, "We'd prefer if they didn't find certain parts of the cas-"

"They're heading towards the dungeons," Braig said, standing upright, "Towards X. Get Aeleus, I'm gonna go drag the kids out by their ears."

"Don't do anything drastic," Dilan said.

"I'll do things as drastically as is needed," Braig said, grinding his teeth. That wasn't good, those kids had been fuckin' around with Ventus, if they mentioned him to Skuld, there was the risk it would jog her memories. Hell, Luxu had avoided her like the damn plague on the off chance he would say something that would remind her.

Shadows warped around him as soon as he was away from Dilan. Moving towards the kids, he grabbed an arrowgun and began to angle it towards them. If they said Ventus's name, things were gonna get bloody, fast.

-X Isa X-

Isa looked at the dark haired girl sitting on a nice bed in the cell, sharing a look with Lea before they stepped closer, doing his best to ignore the feeling of someone walking across their grave. Who was she? Why was she here?

"Who are you?" She asked, brown eyes watching them warily. She was wearing a simple gown, and appeared to be a couple years younger than them, "I don't recognize you."

"I- I'm Isa!" Isa said, swallowing air. Lea looked over at him, a slight grin on his face. Oh boy, "and this is-"

"I'm Lea," the redhead said with a grin on his face, "Commit it to memor- did you two hear that?"

"What?" Isa said.

"Coulda sworn I heard something moving," Lea said, eyes scanning the room with his frisbee in one hand, "There's nothing else in these cells, are there… uh…?"

"X," she said, "That's all they've called me. X."

"Right, that's easy to memorize," Lea said, head turning around the area, "Not like that weird kid, what was his name, Isa?"

"You talked to him more than I did," Isa said, before focusing back on X, "Why are you in there?"

"I don't know," X said, "They just put me in here after I woke up. And before that… there's not much. A few faces, but nothing else."

"Weird," Lea drawled, walking around and looking between each cell, 'What're they like? The faces?"

"T-there's a boy with grey hair," she said, holding her head, tears welling up in her eyes, "he's got blue eyes and a red scarf… I should know his name, I know where it should be but it's like a ghost or a flash of light or a shooting star. Why- w-why can't I-I remember-

"Lea," Isa hissed. Great, he had made her cry!

"Hey," Lea said, turning towards her and carefully pulling out a lockpick. Reaching down, he swiftly opened the door and stepped in, pulling her into a soft hug, "We all have days like that. It'll come back to ya, trust me."

"But they're all like that," X said, "there's a girl with white hair, a boy with pink, a blonde with spiky hair, a black haired one wearing a hat, and I can't remember any of their names! I-"

"Braig!" Isa locked up with Lea at the familiar voice of the black haired guard. Lea jumped back from X and swung the door shut, squeezing into a corner with Isa. The blue haired boy gestured to X to keep quiet, "Braig, have you found them?"

Everything was gonna be fine. There wasn't anyone-

"Yeah," Isa and Lea jumped as a voice came from the wall behind them, it warping to grab them quite literally by their ears and twisting hard. A man with pointed ears and one eye looked down at them with a glowing gold eye, "I got them! You have no idea how much trouble you're in, kids."

"Who-?" X said, standing up.

"And bring the keys, they unlocked X's cell!" Their captor said, dragging them towards the stairs, "C'mon kiddies, you're about to have a long chat with Ansem on why busting into somewhere your nose doesn't belong is a bad idea."

"Don't-!" X started, grabbing her cell door. The area around it warped, refusing to move.

"For your own safety," the man said, "please remain inside the door until things are sorted out. I'll get Ansem to give you a pen and paper, so you can draw instead of talking to random kids breaking in."

-X Ruby X-

"We didn't need someplace this big," Ruby deadpanned, still focused on the house the Master had… generously paid for. One that easily made her house on Patch look small.

"Down the line, Lux," the Master said, "Down the line it'll be helpful. Now, get Master Defender out, we're sparring."

Ruby silently chewed her cheek before summoning the Keyblade in a flash of light. What the heck did down the line mean? What was gonna happen that required a small manor, especially with the Land of Departure in the picture.

If there was one thing that Ruby was sure about, it was that it didn't bode well for anything. That he had specifically bought it in her name even more so. Not that anything had been going well recently.

They were standing on a landfill by the sea, having finished what could only be generously be called house shopping. It had been more the Master easily paying for a house without any attempts to barter and ignoring Ruby's protests.

Shadows formed in the Master's right hand, taking the form of a shadowy, simple Keyblade. In the blink of an eye, he was on her, swinging the Keyblade for her head. Ruby dodged, landing on top of a broken refrigerator. The Master shifted, his body language carrying a grin she couldn't see, "Good! You know why we're sparring here?"

"Nobody cares if we wreck the place?" Ruby asked, years of ingrained sardonicism rearing its head. You didn't deal with the Master without quickly getting tired of his behavior.

"Well, yeah, kinda," the Master said , "but also so you can learn some underhanded tactics. There's gonna be times you fight people stronger than you, and you're gonna have to cheat. Cheat, cheat and then, to really throw them off guard, play fair just long enough for the next cheat to be a surprise again."

"O…K…?" Ruby said.

"Ambushes, spells at the drop of a hat," The Master suddenly landed on the refrigerator, driving his Keyblade into the side of her head with a crack. Ruby staggered back, seeing stars, "Attacks while your opponents guard is down. If there's a way to get a hit in, do it."

He wanted spells at the drop of a hat, eh? Well then she'd give him that.

The refrigerator under them buckled and was pulverized as the Master was thrown back by the tidal wave of force. Ruby flew back herself, hand stinging, and landed on a washing machine as she watched the Master rocket away. Then he vanished into a Dark Corridor, and Ruby was left whipping around as he burst out of the one behind her, using the momentum to smash his shadow Keyblade into Master Defender so hard the metal under her feet immediately buckled.

"Nicely done," the Master praised, "You got me while I was lecturing. But it's gonna take more than that to-"

Two glowing chains launched at him, a barrier deflecting them. Ruby opened a Corridor as the metal finished buckling, plummeting into it and coming out in the sky, a flexing of her hand sent another spell crashing down on the Master and flattened trash. Or it would have, if a careless flick of his hand hadn't sent up an even greater blast of force. Ruby gritted her teeth as she was sent flying into the air, something warm rolling from the corner of her lips, "Dang-"

"C'mon, I just did that to you!" The Master called, "Did you really think it would wor-"

"How about this!?" Ruby growled, Malice Strikes flying off Master Defender as she plummeted. The Master deflected each one with a wave of his hand, shockwaves exploding in time with each. Finally, Ruby fell right on top of him, Malice wrapped around Master Defender like a second blade. The Keyblade made of shadows blocked the strike, leaving Ruby hovering in air.

"Nice try, kiddo," the Master drawled, before a ball of fire appeared in his off hand and he casually raised it, "but you're a couple of millennia too late for that trick to work on me."

Ruby swung her arm up, the gravity spell taking control of the metal under and around the Master and ripping it towards him as she pushed off. Ruby huffed, watching the ball of metal smashed into the ground, arm shaking as a grey-purple wing of stain-glass energy coiled around her left arm. That was also new.

Finally, the ball exploded in a burst of fire, the Master rushing towards her. Ruby swung her arm, the burning fragments flying towards the Master, who alternated between deflecting them and using them as a stepping stone before he collided with Ruby, "Hey, Lux?"

"What?" Ruby gasped, wing sputtering and pain roaring back into existence.

"Remember what I said about overdoing it?"

"What-" Ruby coughed, flecks of red spittle flying from her mouth, "What about it?"

"You're not that dumb, Lux. You've been using the boost this entire fight without noticing it, and you're about to hit your limit. We're done for now."

"But-"

"No buts," the Master said, dispelling his Keyblade, "C'mon, we're gonna get out of here and get you some rest. We've got eleven days before Beacon restarts, and while you gotta work with your team and Riku, I think we can get you past two and a half minutes before you hit your limit. Not that you should be using it consecutively."

"I don't even remember activating it… whatever it is."

"Then that'll be step one," the Master said.

-X Braig X-

Braig threw the kids into Ansem's study by their ears, hiding the grinding of his teeth the best he could. She had been close, there, to mentioning the New Ira's name. Or at least, she was getting close, because all those things had something in common with the damn name.

This was bad, this was really bad. He'd have thought he had more time to figure out what to do about Skuld, even if he hadn't even begun to start. And what the actual hell was he supposed to do about her? Shoot her? Drop her on some backwater world and forget about her? Hand her to Ruby and let the new Foreteller deal with the headache?

He needed time to figure this out and space too. He was gonna finish editing those files, make sure things started the way they wanted then he was gonna go on that hunting trip with Ruby.

In the meantime, "Guess who I found skulding about the dung- sorry, skulking about the dungeons."

"I see," Ansem said carefully, standing up from his chair and walking around his desk. The red scarf around his neck swishing lightly as he looked down at the duo, "Isa… and Lea, correct?"

"Yes, sir," the blue haired one said, swallowing as Braig leaned against the wall.

"And what, exactly," Ansem said, dark amber eyes alternating between the two, "were you two doing in my basement?"

"What was that girl doing in your basement!?" the redhead blurted out.

"Subject X is being kept there for her own safety," Ansem said, eyes flickering over to the screen for a second. Subtly warping space, Braig watched the camera feed showing Xehanort pacing around in front of the cage, looking agitated. Say what you would about Ansem, but he wasn't completely incompetent, "Though I admit I probably could have given her some more amenities. Braig, your idea about some supplies for drawing is brilliant, please, stop by her room on the way back to your quarters and see if there's any types of books she enjoys. I fear I may have given the impression I was keeping her for some nefarious purpose. Would you boys say that's true?"

Both of them nodded, the redhead speaking up for both of them, "Yeah, you could say that. Like, super sketchy."

"Then would you two be willing to come visit her on occasion? Outside of delivering food, Xehanort tends to be the only one who engages with Subject X," Ansem said, eyes narrowing, "he was the one who named her, in fact."

"Yes," the blue haired boy said with a nod.

"Good," Ansem said, cracking a smile, "then could you wait outside for a moment, I need to speak with Braig alone."

"What?" Braig said the moment the door swung shut.

"Tell Dilan I want someone guarding X any time Xehanort is visiting her," Ansem said, voice brokering no argument, "I don't care if it weakens our defenses around the castle itself. I don't trust him with her."

"Why? Maybe he's just trying to identify with her?" Braig said, "Ya know, from one amnesiac to another?"

"Still," Ansem said, "I don't want to risk it. While Xehanort has shown a fondness for the letter X, I fear the implications of him naming her such."

"C'mon, boss," Braig said, "There wasn't time for him to-"

"Create Subjects I through IX before she appeared?" Ansem said, "Logic dictates so, but there's always the risk that it's a ghost memory. He is a brilliant young scientist, and not all mentors are as moral as I."

Moral. Right. Which is why they had cameras all over the place, guards out front, a teenage girl locked in the dungeon, sorry, 'basement' and it was gonna be child's play to get them on board the experimentation train.

"Right," Braig said, "I'll tell Dilan the brats are allowed to talk with X and to keep an eye on her. He's not gonna be happy though."

"I do not doubt it," Ansem said.

- X Naomasa X-

Tsukauchi Naomasa looked up as the door swung open, a skeletal man walking into the room, "Hello, Toshinori."

"Hey," Toshinori said with a cough, dabbing some blood away from his mouth, "You said you needed me?"

"Yes," Naomasa said, "There was an… incident at the the Dagobah municipal beach that raised some red flags with the desk clerks, so they sent it to me and I… well, I called you, obviously."

"Really?" Toshinori said, taking a seat, "What kind of incident?"

"At first, it looked like a simple case of illegal Quirk usage, then things got… complicated," the detective said, turning on the television and pulling up the video, "it's best if I just show you."

A girl wearing a hooded black trenchcoat and black and red armor around her right arm stood opposite a man in the same trenchcoat, talking to him. The man responded with exaggerated movement, pacing and raising his finger. Finally, the girl gave an exasperated sigh, holding out her hand to catch a long, black club with a square handguard of grey metal and wood, an English letter E extending off from near the end of the head.

The shadows warped, jumping into the palm of the cloaked man and forming onto a ball. He closed his hand, as if to crush it, and instead the shadows twisted again, forming what could only be called a cross between a club and a skeleton key. The man lunged forward, club swinging for the girl. The weapons clashed momentarily, before the girl flew back and landed on a broken refrigerator, and Toshinori spoke up, "Do we have audio?"

"Barely," Naomasa said, "the cameras at Dagobah have been… neglected, to say the least."

"Pull it up anyways," Toshinori said, the skeletal form of the number one hero leaning forward, "and I still don't get why I'm he-"

"-at the drop of a hat," the man said, drawing a surprised coughing fit from Toshinori, blood splattering across the table before he grabbed a tissue from the box Naomasa offered his, wiping his jaw and the table.

"Thanks," Toshinori said, "and sorry. He just took me by surprise because he sounds like an old friend of mine. But it can't be Dave, his quirk is, uh… well, it's not creating weapons that's for su-"

Before Toshinori could finish, a loud crack echoed from the video, causing the audio to pop and crackle. The man's voice continued, "Attacks while your opponents guard is down. If there's a way to get a hit in, do it."

The girl grit her teeth, pulling back her right hand and flexing her hand. Sand and dust swirled around it for a second, before the wave of force ripped from her hand, destroying the fridge they were on, sending the man flying back and a wave of sand and metal detritus flying towards him. Sand whipped around the girl, only a glowing red spotlight visible through it.

Then a black portal opened behind the man, letting him vanish and reappear in a roundhouse slash behind the girl, and Toshinori audibly choked on his own blood.

- X Toshinori X-

Toshinori's mind was spinning as he watched the two clash, the whirlwind vanishing as quickly as it came. The man who sounded like Dave praised the girl in english, before she suddenly fell back into the same portal the other man had used. For a second, the camera couldn't find her, before she came plummeting from the sky, a wing of grey… something trailing behind her.

Time seemed to grind to a halt again, before another blast of force came slamming down on Dagobah, sending a spike of agony through the wound in his side. If he still had a stomach, Toshinori was sure there would have been bile in his mouth alongside the blood. It was less controlled, but that Quirk remained him of…

"You're getting it too?" Tsukauchi asked.

"Those abilities. He used ones like them. But… this doesn't fit his MO. Why are they training in an open area?" Toshinori asked, "It doesn't hurt to check, but I don't think they work for All for One."

"I'll do some research," Tsukauchi said, "See if I can't dig up something about them, but I make no promises. They only said a couple of names, Lux, but that's likely to be a code name, and Riku. It's not the most common name, but-"

"Who knows how many in the country," Toshinori said, "or even just in the area. With that teleportation Quirk, who knows how wide the net we'd need to cast is."

"Exactly," Tsukauchi said, "And I'm not exactly looking forward to trying to bring them in. They must have some sort of enhancement Quirk to be willing to throw around attacks like that without worrying about hurting each other."

Or something that could be used as an enhancement Quirk. They barely knew anything about these two, "I'll be there, if it comes to that."

- X AN X-

And with that, our little outing to Mustafu ends. Not exactly on the best note, but not on the worst either. Also, you know what's great about having an omniscient jackass like MoM in the story ? Him buying a large house makes complete sense since he knows what's gonna happen in the future, and yes, they're gonna need that space.

Thoughts, questions and opinions? Good? Bad? Meh?