Author's note: So, work experience: cancelled. School is now online though, so I might have more time to write. Or I might not! Who knows? Anyway, I'm starting to get concerned that I'm focusing on Locostral too much. Regal Eagle seems to be more on the ball at keeping a balance of chapters in the realm of the fic compared chapters in Locostral than I am. So this is gonna be the last Locostral chapter for a bit to rebalance. This is also the second time I've planned a snapshot before incorporating it into the story and writing a new one. And confession: I haven't watched the cameoed realm beyond the end of season 2, but I understand that a lot of weird shizz goes down. Also, I updated chapter 1 for a little bit at the end and I fixed a error in chapter 2. Anyhow, enjoy the chapter!
With thanks to my Patrons:
Regal Eagle
In response to reviews: (Thanks for leaving them!)
chris: I already answered that a while back.
MoosHeadFamLit: You're right. Be prepared for a dump of lore! And yeah. Cade's max height is 160m. Goji Earth is 300m. He's a big boy.
dragonauthor: I hear the death metal blaring already. Yes, you can write that. Hopefully I fixed the link to the discord server, so you should be able to get on it. I just have 2 flaws with the character sheet:
-1. If he lives in Alaska, why would he go to Israel? That doesn't really make sense to me. You could probably re-work it so he still saves people. Perhaps from a gunman in a shopping mall or something?
-2. How can he be shy but have a large ego? You might want to get rid of one of those.
Apart from that, everything checks out!
Blaze1992: I'd like to hear your thoughts. It's always good to get a second opinion.
Daniel Clausen: Yeah, Trial has been a learning curve for me, and I'm happy to see that someone else understands that. As with Islingr, I realise that I kinda shunted her into the background, and I'm trying to rectify that. And yep, Roran will be in the sequel and will serve pretty much the same role as he did in Paloni's books. When I first read Eldest, I didn't like the inclusion of his point of view, but as I re-read the series a few times, I grew to enjoy his perspective from the average soldier's view of the world. So yep, he'll be there. Count on it.
Br2nd66: Dungeons and Dragons. Ah. I have played it, but I don't any more, as I don't meet up with the people I played with any more. And I don't have any of the manuals or know the lore, so I'd be more than a little screwed if I tried to write that. Perhaps in the future?
Disclaimer: I do not own the Inheritance Cycle
Chapter 25: To infinity and beyond
The day of the next Gathering, Amara and we went back to Locostral, our bags of stuff on our back. We hadn't told our cousin about our dream, preferring to go to the Elders directly and ask them about the strange woman. Amara exited the Rift first, gracefully transitioning from the multiversal wormhole to the streets of Locostral. However, when we left the orange portal, we were almost immediately confronted by Ragnar.
"Hi." He said. "I need to talk with you three."
Our six eyes widened in surprise. "We need to talk with you too."
"Right. Let's walk and talk."
We gave our bags and things to Amara and followed Ragnar out of the city. And by 'out of the city', we mean off the floating island. We beat our wings to take to the sky while Ragnar's thrusters fired, lifting him off the ground. Gaining altitude, we flew over to the next valley and found a… spaceport? Ragnar's Infinity was docked here, along with several other ships that weren't anywhere near as big.
"Why are we here?" Driscol asked as Ragnar led us inside one of the Infinity's various hangar bays.
"Because I need your guys' help. Everyone in my crew is still on shore leave, so they're all on holiday apart from Team Pride and GLaDOS, but there's a new Plainswalker I need to retrieve. You help me, and we'll consider this as half of your punishment. You can survive in space, right?"
"We have literally no idea."
Ragnar tapped on a panel on the wall. A loud hissing sound started up, along with several loud clangs and hums, and we felt a strong movement from the air, like a breeze had started up. That was probably some form of air conditioning.
Just before it stopped, Ragnar said "Right. But how do you feel about going to space though?"
Honestly, as soon as we clamped eyes on the Infinity when it first appeared, we had practically drooled at having seen it. Going to space in it? We had half-formed plans about hijacking the ship and driving it ourselves for that.
All three of us smiled in absolute joy. "We'd love that."
Ragnar tapped on the screen in the wall again. The airflow started up again, but in the other direction. "Good, because you're definitely coming now. I just vented all the air out of the room, and then back in as a test to see if you could survive without it. You did, so you can survive in space."
"You did what?" Sparta said in disbelief. "But what if we had been affected?!"
Ragnar glanced at us like we were completely stupid. "Then I would have stopped the procedure. I'm not a monster."
"But why didn't you tell us you were doing it?" Driscol asked.
"Because people tend to try to hold their breath if I tell them. It's more efficient my way, and then I know when to pump the air back in. And I don't have to watch them freak about their heads exploding from the change in pressure."
"It's still kinda cold though." Kevin remarked as the ship shook under us.
Ragnar shrugged. "Maybe it is. But on my ship, it's my way or the highway. Now follow me to the bridge. We're taking off."
Five minutes later, and we were outside a massive blast door, waiting to be let into the bridge. Ragnar had briefed us on the situation. A Plainswalker key for a realm involving Voltron- not the one that Ragnar's crew formed- had dematerialised, and as there was no local Plainswalker, we had to go in and… educate them, we guessed?
"I think I heard something about you three getting armour, right?" Ragnar asked us.
We nodded in tandem. "Yeah."
"For protection from magic?"
"Yep."
"Put it on. There are witches and wizards here."
We nodded, swinging our bag of armour off our back as the door to the bridge opened. Inside were five robotic lions looking out of the front window, and a white robotic-arm like construct. So the original Voltron lions and GLaDOS.
As soon as we went in, everyone turned around to look at us. The lions shuddered, making us wince as we recalled our last encounter. The one where we'd drained their energy and left them as junk.
However, GLaDOS decided to make things infinitely more embarrassing by turning around and saying "Why hello there, handsome. You flying my way tonight?"
Ragnar chuckled as he entered the room and took in our horrified expressions. "Gladys, they're new. Drop the flirting."
The large robot sighed dramatically and sagged. "Only for you, Babe."
"Gladys." The elder admonished gently. "Status report."
We took the opportunity of the conversation slipping away from us to start putting on Skölir. Slipping into our shining armour, we looked out of the large windows at the twinkling stars.
"Fine. We have exited the atmosphere. All systems are nominal and ready for a Riftspace jump. Shields are active, wards are up, and MAC cannons are fully charged."
"Thanks." Ragnar said. "Enter Riftspace and give me an ETA."
GLaDOS- or Gladys- looked like she wanted to roll her eye. "You know as well as I do that time is relative between both slipspace and realms. We'll get there when we get there, you glorious feat of engineering."
"As we always do." The Black Lion said humorlessly. Her voice sounded female, but it was harder to tell with robots than with the rest of us Plainswalkers. "And Gladys… you know that Ragnar and Gipsy are in a relationship, right?"
"THEY WHAT?!" The white-plated Plainswalker said in shock, whirling from the Black Lion to Ragnar and back.
Ragnar shrugged. "It just kinda happened. But that's not important now. We concentrate on the mission, get the Plainswalker, then get back home. After they go with Kevin, Driscol and Sparta to the Stadium, then we get into a blazing row. Clear?"
"IT ISN'T BLOODY CLEAR! YOU DROP A BOMBSHELL LIKE THAT-"
"That was an order." Ragnar said, letting a little bit of bite into his voice. "Besides, you flirt with everyone. Why is my life so important to you?"
Though there was quite a bit of grumbling from GLaDOS, Ragnar's request was followed. In front of the ship, a large slipspace portal appeared, although it was orange instead of purple.
"What's with the colour?" We asked the Black Lion. "Slipspace is supposed to be purple…"
"It's Riftspace, kid. We're travelling through space, time, and realms at faster-than-light speeds. A pain in the ass to do, or so I'm told."
"Oh."
It wasn't long before Ragnar ordered the lions to get to the launch bay.
As they left, we said "Wait."
They did as we asked, turning in the doorway to face us.
"We're sorry." We apologised. "When we first met, we… well, we tried to kill you guys. Admittedly, we weren't in full control of ourself, but that doesn't excuse us for what we tried to do. If we can make it up to all of you… and the others that are usually on board… then we'd try our best to do so."
The lions' gazes softened, and the green one said in a deep voice "Don't worry about it. A lot of things try to kill us. Your attack just taught us another place where we were vulnerable, and we can invent a defensive maneuver to protect ourselves from it in the future."
We nodded in understanding as they went out, but it still didn't feel right to us. We'd practically put them in the robotic equivalent of a coma, and we still felt that we owed them.
"So." Ragnar said, breaking us from our thoughts. "What did you three want to talk to me about?"
"Well, we kinda had this… vision last night." Driscol explained. "We met this woman made of orange light, and we talked about some stuff. She said that we were one of the ones out for her heart, and to ask one of the Elders about the 'Great Two'."
Ragnar stiffened, his voice barely more than a whisper. "You… you met… Follow me, now."
"But why-"
Ragnar leaned close to us and whispered "There are some things that we Elders keep secret for a reason. Things that would terrify everyone else until there would be mass panic in Locostral. This is one of them, and if you three really want to know, you will follow me and not ask questions until I tell you to, got it?"
We nodded, shaken. Ragnar practically ran from the bridge, and we followed him. Our route took us down several massive corridors, through a few airlocks, and into a lift that ascended into a large room.
It was evidently Ragnar's personal quarters, but from the little we knew of him, there was nothing we really expected. There was a transparent ceiling above us, showing off the stars, and a plush carpet underneath our feet, soft enough that we could easily have fallen asleep by just lying on it. There was a large bed on one side of the room, a desk with a holographic interface above it, and a set of shelves down one wall.
On them were a large collection of books and graphic novels about Kaiju, an entire row dedicated to books on dinosaurs, more comics, various apocalypse survival guides, a couple of clearly enlarged Lego sets, and a section dealing with fantasy. There was also a rack on the only remaining side of the room. On it, there were the various add-ons from Ragnar's form. Two blue dual mazer cannons, two rocket packs- one blue, one silver, and a hand that could transform into a drill.
"There's a lot I'm going to have to tell you." Ragar said, sitting on his bed and looking at us. "This is gonna sound really strange, but I swear it's all true, and I'm gonna ask you to leave your questions for then end. However, there are gaps in some places, as the person who told us Elders this didn't want to share more personal matters. I'm also going to have to ask you to not tell anyone else this, unless the multiverse is ending or it's critically important to share the info."
"We promise." We said, tracing a finger over our chest. "Cross our hearts and hope to die."
Ragnar nodded, sighed, and began. "In the beginning of the multiverse, there were two beings. They were Primordials- entities of great power that often create the universe they inhabit. However, these two were much more powerful than the rest, as they created almost all of the realms and interlinked them all with the rift.
Time passed, and everything was fine. The multiverse was in place, and the realms were ticking over nicely. The two creators watched on from the first realm they had created- a realm that one of the creators had poured the most of his energy into. It was cold and dark there, and so it became... Void, named after its creator. Similarly, the energy that wove the realms together was named the rift after its maker, Rift.
However, some time in the middle ages by our reckoning, Void grew tired of his creations, no longer captured by their wonders like Rift still was. He began to pull the other realms into his one, wanting to see what would happen if he merged them. Rift, though excited about the opportunity for change this would bring, was soon horrified at the constant battles and wars that the civilizations that were brought together waged with each other, and she pleaded with Void to stop the fighting. Void didn't care, and told Rift not to interfere in his work.
Rift, being furious, left, and thought over how she could stop the fighting and death that Void was causing. And so, she stumbled across the last Realm that she and Void had created. This one hadn't had as much work put into it as the others, and so it had none of the more interesting aspects that other realms had. No magic, no spaceships, no powers. And it was called Earth."
Our breath hitched.
"Yeah. Our home. However, Rift felt something special from Earth. The souls that die there, like us, we were ones that were strong. We stood and yelled that we would not go quietly into the night. Our souls had power.
And so, Rift began to save us from the anti-realm known as 'Limbo', which is where Void and Rift were born from, as well as where we went before we touched that light. That light is a fragment of Rift's power, giving us a lifeline. When the Elders system was set up, Rift came to us and told us we weren't the first people she tried to save. She declined to share the information about what happened to them, but she said she had to improvise, and quickly.
Apparently, Rift scattered hints of the other realms into Earth; stories and legends of happenings elsewhere. We began to remember these stories, clinging to a hope that there was something more out there, and we began to survive the change by getting changed into new forms that could handle the power. She created a realm for us to use as a base of operations. She gave us a system where we could travel the realms. She gave us the power to fight Void's power. And we became the Plainswalkers."
There was a pause as we tried to digest the information. It seemed mad, absolutely bonkers. Beings that created the multiverse? A war across the realms? And us being the heroes of it? It was utterly insane, yet somehow, deep down, we knew it was true.
"So… We spoke with Rift? A primordial? One of the ****ing creators of the multiverse?!" Sparta sputtered.
"Yes. Yes you did." Ragnar sighed. "And by the sounds of it, she confirmed you're a Riftheart. Know what those are?"
"Yeah…" Sparta said. "Basically, Plainswalker special ops. Abraxus said we had the potential for it… But how do the Shadows fit into this?"
"Shadows are Void's troops in a response to Rift setting up us." Ragnar said, getting off his bed and attaching his blue rocket pack and maser cannons. "Void never leaves his realm, but he sends out his troops to deal with assimilating them. Shadows can only pull other realms into the realm Void if there is no trace of Rift's power, which is why they come after us Plainswalkers. It's why we guard them at all times. We're the first and last lines of defence for the Realms. It's our job to protect them."
We suppressed the ability to yell 'Sir, yes sir!' and Driscol asked a more serious question. "Rift… she said that we were the strongest Riftheart so far, but we only have our growing and shrinking ability. How are we the strongest?"
Ragnar shrugged. "No Riftheart ever gets their abilities all at once. It's a learning curve. But Rift will know what you can do. If she says you have power, then you have power, simple as that."
A light from outside the ship flared, and we passed back into normal space.
Ragnar looked up, then at us as red lights began to flash and blast doors slid over the window. "Code Red, kid. We're in a combat situation now."
As we got to the launch bay, we found the five Lions waiting for us with excited smiles as the ship shook from the force of blasts impacting the shields and the deafening booms of MAC cannons returning fire.
Ragnar was all business. "You all know how to fight, so I won't tell you how to do so. However, since Cade doesn't know how we operate as a team, we need to split up. Cade and I will try to find our resident Plainswalker in all this, while Team Pride will draw enemy fire and disable as many enemies as possible. Understood?"
"Yes sir!" the lions chorused as we happily roared in agreement.
"Good. Cade, you won't even be able to hear our comms, so patch yourselves into our heads and we'll try to relay info to you as best I can."
"Understood."
"Excellent. Now, LAUNCH!"
The blast doors sealing the air in the room opened with a flashing yellow light and a loud alarm that was quickly silenced as the air decided it wanted to go outside and play. The robots fired their boosters and shot out of the hangar one by one, and we followed, throwing ourself into space. We had no idea how, but our wings broke the laws of physics and decided that they worked as well in space as they did in atmosphere, so we quickly gained speed and fell into formation alongside Ragnar.
Words can't describe how weird being in a zero-g vacuum is. Your hearing is instantly gone, there's no air resisting your movements, and your sense of balance goes and dies on you. In short, odd, but manageable.
He nodded to us as we grew to our full size with a flash of orange light from our armour. Checking out what we were actually heading into, we saw hundreds of purple battle cruisers. They were firing at a few main targets, including the Infinity, us, Ragnar, the five Lions, and in the distance, two dots of light, one of which was this universe's Voltron, and another which must have been the Plainswalker we were here to get.
"What's the plan?" we asked Ragnar. "Go in and help?"
He surveyed the battlefield. The Infinity was soaking up the incoming fire on its shields and dishing out way more damage, one-shotting the enemy cruisers with ease. Team Pride was sticking as five individual units working at a team, obliterating anything in their way. And Voltron and the Plainswalker seemed to be doing okay.
Ragnar put a finger to the side of his head and said "The Plainswalker is with Dreamworks Voltron. Team Pride, we'll rendezvous on their location with you. Bust out your big friend. Gladys, get us on their comms. Let them know they have friendlies. Cade, get in their heads too. You'll need to be able to hear what everyone is saying."
"Ebony here, roger that."
"GLaDOS acknowledges, working on it."
"This is Cade, we copy."
There was a brief pause before Ragnar said. "Team Pride, this is your show. Want to bust out the music?"
"Yes!"
"Understood. You are clear to do so. Go with shock and awe."
Ragnar and we then shot off towards the two dots of light, blasting any ship we came across with our Gravity Beams and Ragnar's masers. We didn't hear the aforementioned music, but we definitely heard the Team's leader giving orders.
"Team Pride, ready to form Voltron!"
A much more excited voice yelled "Yeah! Let's do this!"
"All units, activate interlocks."
There were two cries of "Done!" and "Locked in!", so we assumed they were alright.
"Dynatherms registering as connected. Infracells are up, too and mega-thrusters are go! Let's go, Plainswalkers!"
We felt lightning flash from the five robots, and then they began to combine.
"Form feet and legs! Form arms and body! And I'll form the head!"
The lightning dissipated, and the five became one. Strangely, we could feel that their minds hadn't merged, but were in harmony, like when the three of us spoke in unison or did something in sync. Interesting.
As they fell into formation on Ragnar's left, they glanced at us. "You okay there, guys?"
"Ready to rumble!" Kevin said happily, obliterating an enemy ship with a Gravity Beam.
The five Plainswalkers beside us smirked, putting their hands together and slowly drawing them apart, creating a beam of light. "Us too. Form Blazing Sword!"
The light dissipated, forming a long, metal blade with a hilt like a blue pirate's cutlass. White-hot shrapnel from Kevin's kill flew past us, into the gulf of space.
"Why use a sword when you need range?" Sparta asked, using one of our beams to grab hold of an enemy ship and smash it into three more like a plough, blowing all of them up in the process.
Ragnar used his Absolute Zero Cannon to freeze a ship solid before smashing his fist into its side. The ship shattered into billions of ice particles, floating away into nothingness.
"Guys, concentrate! Cade, Get to the Plainswalker! Voltron, assist your counterpart! I need to rescue someone."
With a nod from us and a salute from Voltron, Ragnar peeled off, going for a massive space station. We beat our wings hard, somehow accelerating through the vacuum of space. This realm's Voltron formed a massive shoulder cannon and blasted through a whole line of enemy ships as we took care of a few pesky fighters, grabbing hold of them in our mouths and crushing them with a soundless explosion and the spicy taste of melting metal.
As we and our Voltron pulled up alongside this realm's Voltron, we noticed a smaller form hovering to the robot's right. It was white, about five times smaller than the colossal combiner, and was humanoid with the exception of a large horn on its head.
GLaDOS finally came through with "We're in their comms. Cade, connect to them mentally."
"On it." We said, sending a mental probe towards the Plainswalker. "Hi. Are you receiving us?"
The white figure turned towards us in shock, raising its gun instinctively.
"Woah, woah, woah!" Driscol said as we put up our hands in clear submission. "We're like you! Lived on Earth, died, got shot through the multiverse. Just… put the gun down, okay?"
"You're... from the same Earth I'm from?" Came the stunned reply. The voice sounded female, and slightly skeptical.
Kevin nodded happily. "Yep! We're Cade. Born in Montanna, USA. Died from a bear ripping our guts out. Then we got shunted into this body and we were sent to a realm of dragons."
The white-armoured Plainswalker looked us up and down. "You're that dragon from that Godzilla movie, right?"
Sparta scowled, but Driscol nodded. "And you are?"
At that moment, we felt something hit our mental barriers. Kevin and Driscol scrambled to defend us, leaving the eyes of the heads they inhabited cold and lifeless until Sparta stepped in and took control of our body. At the same time, our new friend's armour started changing position, glowing red segments activating as her horn split in two.
"You're a Gundam!" Kevin squealed happily in realisation before going back to upping our mental defence.
The Gundam Plainswalker nodded at us. "That settles it, you're from my Earth. Nobody else here can identify me on sight. Joni Stannard, RAF Pilot Officer, Unicorn Gundam, reporting for duty. And there's either a newtype or a magician around here, as I've just gone into 'destroy mode'."
"Stop chatting, we need backup!" the five voices of our Voltron yelled.
They were currently protecting this realm's Voltron from enemy fire, as they'd seized up and weren't moving. We couldn't see Ragnar anywhere, but he wasn't available. In the meantime, Driscol and Kevin had encompassed our mental defence to cover the minds of our allies, and were busy clashing with a massively powerful force.
"We're under mental attack!" Sparta reported. "I'd advise retreat! We can't hold off whoever this is forever!"
It was true. Our mental Locostral was taking a pounding, and even though our defences were firing back with maximum power, we were fighting a losing battle. Kevin generated a fleet of UNSC craft to fight off the attacker before following them up with various dragons and Kaiju. Driscol was issuing orders to them, calculating the best plan of counterattack before finalising it, slipping out of our mindscape, and then mentally smashing into our enemy in the traditional Alagaësian way. That threw them for a while, making them go on the mental defensive, which gave us breathing space. This realm's Voltron was also freed, but hung in space rather than pressing on with their attack.
Sparta used our gravity beams to drag the two Voltrons back towards us, and Ragnar was flying back to us from the space station. Rolling so he was facing it, he fired his AZC. A blue-white beam of energy flew out, towards the giant ship. It bypassed a counter of dark lightning that was aimed at it, impacting on the gigantic, city-sized vessel. Ice rapidly spread from the hit, freezing the whole ship to absolute zero on the molecular level. All that was left was to shatter it. Ragnar charged the mazers in his mouth and fired, sending twin beams of yellow energy sparking towards the space station. They hit dead-on, and the High Charity tryhard crumbled into a large cluster of icebergs the size of skyscrapers.
"That gives us time to evac." Ragnar said, as if he destroyed gigantic space stations regularly. "Right. Team Pride, Cade, Gundam. Get to the Infinity. Team Voltron, get to the Castle of Lions and follow our lead. I have your princess, and I'd like to return her right now, but we're in the middle of a warzone, so if we could get out of here, then talk, I'd appreciate it."
"U… understood." someone said as the pressure on our mind lifted and we returned to our regular heads.
"Grab on to us." Driscol told Joni. "We don't want to risk smashing into you by accident."
She nodded, jetting on top of us and holding on around Driscol's neck. Both Voltrons separated, rocketing back to the two ships on our side, closely followed by Ragnar. We followed suit, turning towards the Infinity and pumping our wings, hard. We… may have gone out of our way to blow up some more enemy ships, but so what?
When we were within a few hundred meters of the Infinity's launch bay, we shrunk down to our regular size, making Joni yelp in surprise and activate her jetpack to slow down on her approach. We flared our wings instead, which somehow slowed us down without air being necessary.
Landing, we turned back to see the bay doors close behind Joni as her destroy mode deactivated. A loud hissing showed the room was repressurising, and a pop of our ears later, and we could hear again.
"Well that was fun." The blue lion said, trying to pull off a grin.
Ragnar put a hand to his neck, allowing a small figure to climb out and onto his hand.
Kevin recoiled. "Dude. You literally had someone inside you."
Ragnar stared at Kevin. "You will never say, insinuate, remember, or think that again in my presence unless you want me to throw you out of the nearest airlock. Gladys, get us into Riftspace back to Locostral. Give our friends time to travel through behind us, then close the portal."
"Roger that." GLaDOS said over an intercom. "Opening portal in thirty seconds."
We and Joni were making our way towards the Stadium as Ragnar half introduced the Gundam's friends to the multiverse, half argued with GLaDOS about his personal life.
"So…" Joni said. "This is…?"
"Locostral." Driscol said. "It's a hub where people like us all hang out while we're not keeping the multiverse safe from Shadows."
Well, after what Ragnar had told us, that seemed like an understatement. We were at war with one of the creators of the multiverse. But we understood the need for secrecy. If we were told this when we started, we would have completely freaked out.
"Shadows are real bad news." Sparta went on. "They want to destroy the realms of the multiverse, which is why we all guard them. If you ever see a Shadow, come back here and get a lot of backup. They're much more powerful than us, apart from a select few."
"Like you?" Joni asked.
"Kind of." Driscol said. "We're a special case, because we have a powerful form, as well as a few extra abilities, like our growing and shrinking. You shouldn't have to worry too much though. There are definitely less than 1000 Shadows in existence, so they aren't too common."
"Right." Joni nodded "So how long have you been doing this?"
Driscol looked at Sparta. "How long has it been? About six months in Earth time?"
"Search me. The fact we lost track of christmas is a sign that we don't really follow time very well. Besides, time is screwed between realms. It's early spring here and it's still late-ish winter in Alagaësia. That makes it hard to keep track. But I'd guess around six months."
"Geez." Kevin said. "Six months… I didn't realise it had been that long."
We walked on in silence until Joni asked "So what's going to happen to me?"
"Well, you'll continue to look after the realm you're in." Sparta explained.
"But here, you'll be taken in by a Clan." Driscol said. "They'll be the equivalent of your best friends, and they'll be able bring you up to speed on what we do here better than we can."
"Oh. So how do I get in a clan?"
"Their clan leader will offer to take you in." Spata said. "We're with the Bluepeak Riftwalkers, and we're all dragons."
"Except Regal." Kevin corrected.
"Yeah, jelly-bean denier Regal." Sparta grumbled. "But you'll probably be in a clan with a lot of robots."
We carried on walking in silence until we reached the Stadium. Upon going through the same doors we had when we'd first arrived, we were surprised to see Darius on the other side, a red dragon with odd pieces of gold jewelry cladding her by his side. She was Alexstrasza from World of Warcraft, and she was about the same size as Darius, although she was at least two meters shorter.
"Sup, Darius!" Kevin said happily as we gave our friend a fist bump. "You found someone new too?"
"Yes I- Wait, you found a new Plainswalker as well?"
We nodded. "Ragnar took us on a trip to space. Darius, this is Joni. Joni, this is Darius. We're in the same clan and ."
Joni waved shyly as Darius nodded to her politely. "Hi."
The flaming dragon glanced at the new "Well, you know how Amara's your cousin?"
"Yes?" Sparta said slowly, quickly mapping out the possible routes this could take.
"Well… er… Rosa here is my sister."
A second of two of shocked silence.
"Dude, that's awesome!" Kevin exclaimed happily.
Driscol smiled "You're incredibly lucky, you know that. Anyway, hi Rosa, we're Cade."
Rosa glanced at her brother uncertainly. "Is that… normal?"
"Yes. When I met them, Cade was one person. Then he kind of broke himself."
"Hey!" Kevin protested. "We were shunted into being like this because of our instincts taking over and making us fight Felix."
"You… they… what?" Rosa said before switching to rapid paced Italian.
Darius followed suit, leaving us awkwardly standing next to Joni, twiddling our thumbs as we listened to the announcements. There would be tryouts for an beastial Ultimate Quidditch team that we planned to attend after the Gathering, a coffee shortage, and news that there was a possibility of a Shadow being in Fairy Tail, which Regal had reported.
"Well that's not good." Darius muttered, having switched back to English.
We nodded. "We'll have to ask Regal about this later."
Then came the question about any other announcements. Darius nudged Rosa forward, and they stepped out, onto the field. We nodded to Joni, and we strode out after the siblings. The crowd went nuts, cheering so loud it was just a solid wall of noise.
"We have new arrivals, Elders!" Darius yelled happily as the crowd began to quiet down. "May I present Rosa, a Plainswalker from Skyrim in the form of Alexstrasza! And my little sister!"
Rosa squeaked nervously under all the surrounding eyes watching her and the thunderous applause, although there was nothing to be afraid of. Gem was quick to offer to take in Rosa, and she accepted without hesitation, happy to be with her brother.
Then it was Joni's turn. She decided to be a little more showy, like we'd been when we first arrived. Standing straight, she activated her 'destroy mode' again. As parts of her body glowed red and her horn split, there were rabid cheers from the crowd.
She saluted, announcing "Joni Stannard, RAF Pilot Officer, Unicorn Gundam and Plainswalker, reporting for duty!"
As everyone applauded, we told the Elders "Ragnar sends his regards. He's on the Infinity, talking with the people Joni were with."
They all nodded in understanding before someone asked which clan would take Joni in. From the stands, another robot stood up. He- well, we thought he was a he- was more colourful than Joni was, with a red and blue torso with some yellow parts.
"Joni will be welcome with us." He said confidently as two more robots rose behind him. "We don't have many members, but as we're all mobile suits, you should feel right at home."
"I'd be happy to join." Joni said, striding forward to shake her new clan leader's hand.
"Any other news?" An elder called. Nobody said anything, so they said "And that finishes our Gathering! Good fortune to you all!"
Given that there would be a few hours before the tryouts would even start, we reclaimed our stuff from our cousin and took the opportunity to wander around the city.
Out of the blue, Islingr decided to start talking to us. "I believe that I should apologise for my near-silence lately."
"It's okay." Kevin said as we found a large tree and lay against it, soaking in the sunlight. "But what have you been doing?"
"Well, while we have been in Alagaësia, I have been communicating with my fellow Eldunarí about your consciousness problem."
"And?" We asked, hope surging through our annoyance.
"We… do not have a solution that is feasible. It would only cause you great pain." Our Ebrithil said sadly.
"Tell me." Sparta said as Driscol and Kevin sighed in disappointment.
"In theory, if two of you were… absent, then the third would have full control, although you would not be the same person as you would be before, and it would produce an effect similar to a rider or bonded dragon's partner dying." Islingr said hurriedly.
"So… we'd go mad and there'd only be one of us left…" Kevin summed up sombrely.
"Yes." our Ebrithil confirmed. "It is unlikely that you would survive the event."
Driscol sighed as we leaned back against the tree and closed our eyes, accepting fate.. "So… we're irreparable."
Finally facing that… it hurt. Knowing that we were broken and no amount of duct tape could put us back together. Sparta growled in anger and Kevin moaned sadly while Driscol stayed silent, trying to think.
"We could see if there's anyone here who specialises in mental abilities." Our centre head said hopefully.
"Just face it." Sparta said dejectedly. "We're damaged goods. We lost ourself to this form's instincts and desires, and we can't find our way back to the light."
Kevin watched as the tree's leaves blew in the gentle wind. "Yeah. But all it takes is someone with a flashlight to show us the way."
Driscol smiled. "I guess so, Kevin. I guess so."
"You're sickeningly positive about this." Sparta said, although he cracked a smile.
"You three should try to take this as an opportunity." Islingr said. "Try to learn as much as you can about yourselves from each other. Discovering yourself is an important part of anyone's life."
"So we crack jokes, tell stories, and get to know ourselves?" Kevin asked.
"I'm pretty sure we all know that our material would get old very, very quickly." Driscol said, and all three of us chuckled at the joke as we sat back and tried to enjoy the day.
There was a small crowd of people already standing in the middle of the Stadium as we landed for the Ultimate Quidditch tryout, our wings creating small breezes as we shrank down to around Jacob's size. There was a small platform in front of the crowd of other people who had arrived for the tryouts. On it stood a team of eleven various creatures, varying from small-ish dragons to large birds to massive insects, to a few wingless creatures carrying brooms. All of them were wearing the same colours of white and red, although some of them wore it on fabric, others on metal armour, and a few of them had the colours painted onto their skin and scales.
Regal landed next to us, tiredly shaking his head as we raised the scaly ridges we had for eyebrows.
"So you decided to try this out too?" Driscol asked.
Regal nodded sleepily. "Yeah. Sorry, but I just had half an hour of sleep after an intense SupCom match against Brackman, and I'm still a bit stunned that he said I almost won against him. And as my form is from the Harry Potter universe, of course I want to try Quidditch!"
Sparta rolled his eyes. "But this is Ultimate Quidditch. A lot more dangerous than the regular type."
Regal shrugged. "Basic rules are almost the same, and what would life be without its spice? Also it's a good opportunity to see how I fare against my fellows Plainswalkers."
Kevin nodded. "Good point. Although we know that we'd obliterate most people. We're doing this so we can get some exercise and do something fun."
"Same with me to be honest." Regal said, standing on one leg and scratching himself with the other. "Although I'm pretty sure I'm more agile than most people due to my extra wings, but I want to use this as training to fly in hostile skies."
Sparta hummed thoughtfully. "That's reasonable. Although we went to space earlier, so hostile skies have kinda lost their significance. Anyway, earlier you said that there was Shadow activity in Fairy Tail. Care to elaborate?"
Regal sighed. "The main cast had to face some sort of boss, a demon. Normally they beat it pretty easily, but as they were facing it, my danger sense flared up and I joined them as fast as I could. Turns out there was a shadowy aura around the boss that blocked their attacks. I managed to stop the attack that would have killed them, then drained the aura using pure Kinetic Energy. After that they beat it like they did in the books. It was definitely a Shadow reinforcing the boss, if I wasn't there… Well we kinda would have three or four important characters dead."
Driscol scowled. What if this would happen in Alagaësia? Would we be able to tell how a Shadow was messing with things?
"What did this aura thing look like?" Our center head questioned. "If there are Shadows powering up the enemies in our realm, we need to know how to identify their interference."
Regal thought about it for an instant before answering. "Kinda like a fog clinging to the enemy. It didn't have red eyes, but there were strange black fumes undulating around it."
All three of our heads nodded and turned their attention to the platform, where one of the players had blown a whistle to get everyone's attention.
The guy who was the team captain was the silver-armoured Arbiter from Halo, which made us instantly respect him. He nodded politely to the whistle blower and took over the proceedings.
"Good afternoon everyone." he said, his four mandible-like jaws somehow managing to form words.
There were various responses from most people ranging from "thanks" to "you too", but we stayed quiet.
He nodded in acknowledgement and thanks. "I never liked my original name, so I'd prefer if you just called me Arbiter. Now, who here knows how Quidditch is played?"
Everyone raised their hands.
"Good. Who knows how to play Ultimate Quidditch?"
There were two or three hands in the air.
Arbiter sighed. "Right. Before we even start, I'll say that this isn't for the faint-hearted. This game is ridiculously dangerous. If you get distracted, you can easily be knocked to the ground with most of your bones broken. A lot of those injuries are recoverable, but you can lose limbs in this game. If you have a problem with that, then leave now."
About half the crowd filtered away, not willing to sacrifice their arms and legs. There were a few murmurs from the remainders.
Regal chuckled. "Scaredy cats!"
Sparta hummed. "I have a feeling I'm going to like this game."
"You like everything to do with violence." Kevin commented.
"So what?"
"Nothing."
Arbiter waited for the talking to die down, then continued. "Now we know who the serious people are, it's time to explain the game. Take what you know about regular Quidditch and up it to 11. Everything is harder. The goals- there are five of them on each end. And they're all on fire. There are adaptive weather systems in the edges of the stadium to give us everything from a bright, sunny day to flying through a blizzard. And it changes randomly."
"Adaptive weather?" Driscol smirked. "This is getting better and better."
Regal hummed and raised a wing as he asked "I suppose those with weather control powers aren't allowed to change it themselves?"
Now that was a fair question, but we already knew the answer. We wouldn't be able to call down lightning and zap people into oblivion.
Arbiter shook his head. "Let me make this clear right now. Abilities. If they harm the other players, you can't use them. That includes changing weather to difficult conditions. However, you can change it to easier conditions, as that doesn't hinder anyone. Can I go on?"
Regal nodded in understanding, so Arbiter continued
"Good. Now, the balls. The Quaffle. This one makes you play hot potato, as if you hold it too long, it explodes like a flashbang. If you're holding it while it blows up, the other team gets the next one. The Bludgers. They're equivalent to drones now. There are nine of the pesky things, and they have small holes in one side that fire paintballs that sting quite a bit. Finally, the Snitch. If you thought it was annoying enough to begin with, you have another thing coming. This Snitch has the ability to teleport once every thirty minutes, and it can store the charges. Leave it an hour, and it can teleport twice. Two hours, four teleports. After hearing that, how many of you still want to play? Leave if you think this isn't your game."
Again, the crowd lost about a third of its members, leaving thirteen people standing on the pitch.
Arbiter surveyed us all. "Well, I have to say that this is better than I had hoped. Usually, we don't get many more than six."
There were a few nervous chuckles, but most people stayed silent.
Arbiter started walking up and down the platform as he looked down at us. "Ultimate Quidditch teams have fourteen players. Six Chasers, two Keepers, three Beaters, one Seeker, and two Everythingers."
Kevin burst out laughing. "Seriously? An Everythinger? You gotta be pulling our tails!"
Arbiter chuckled. "No, it's a very real position. Everythingers are players who have the combined roles of all the other players. You can chase, beat, keep and seek, but you have to be on the ball at all times. I've seen a lot of matches lost because an Everythinger wasn't where they should have been. Now, we have three open positions; a Chaser, a Seeker, and an Everythinger. Decide what you want to try out for and form a group with other people who want that position."
Regal hummed in thought, then said "I'll apply for Chaser. I could be a good Seeker too, but that seems too boring, waiting for the entire match that a shiny ball enters your field of vision? No thanks! Gotta take the more exciting job!"
Driscol's eyes were glazed as he evaluated where we should apply for, but Sparta said "We're most of an asset if we go as an Everythinger. One of us can whack the Bludgers away, another can keep a lookout for the Snitch, and whoever's left can concentrate on flying."
Regal nodded in agreement. "Yep! Your triple consciousness is actually an advantage at once! It would be a shame to waste it. Anyways, let's go in file for our roles."
As Regal walked off to join the chasers, Sparta started mentally muttering "For once? We have a lot of advantages because of our… issue."
Kevin nudged him gently, trying to be supportive. "Just let it go. He meant well."
Sparta sighed dejectedly. "I suppose. But us being… us, is still a bit of a sore subject."
Driscol interrupted the rest of us by saying "Come on. Let's get into the group applying for the Everythinger position."
A slightly battered Regal stepped out of the cargo lift into Mount Bluepeak, and we followed after him at our regular size, our tired tails dragging on the floor. All four of us were exhausted from the battering they'd gone through, but we were pleased. After dodging bludger paintballs, dealing with a mini-sandstorm, and finding out that slamming our tails into the quaffle punctured it, we'd made the team, and that was what mattered.
Driscol glanced at Regal and saw a fairly large cut on the side of his neck. "Dude, you're bleeding."
Regal nodded in acknowledgement. "Yeah I know, a bit of a close call, but that's what training is for. You learn more in failure than success. You don't really have to worry about lost limbs though."
Kevin laughed wearily. "No. We got a few wounds, but they all closed fairly easily. It's a little painful, but being a meat shield for everyone is a surprisingly effective strategy."
Regal looked at us wearily. "Better you than those that don't have expandable limbs."
Driscol looked down at him. "Have you thought about how you could use the Quaffle exploding to your advantage?"
Regal put a claw to his chin in thought as we reached the sofa and collapsed on it. "To be honest, the light doesn't bother me too much, after all I can look directly at the sun without problem, it's more the sound that bothers me, so I could make it explode near one of the opposing Chasers to incapacitate it for a short while."
Sparta nodded eagerly. "Exactly! It explodes like a flashbang, so you can use it to temporarily blind an enemy player. Sure, they'd have a throw-in equivalent, but who cares if you just stopped them from getting the Snitch!"
The thunderbird nodded, considering the advantages we had. "There is something we both are the best at: flying into a storm! Not sure if there is any weather condition worse than a storm, probably a blizzard, but if there is, we should everytime 'tune it down' and use our natural affinities with it to score as much as we can."
Kevin nodded. "We'd have to talk to the rest of the team about that, but still. We should use every advantage we can get."
Gem came over to us, taking in our exhausted appearances. "So, where have you four been?"
"Trying out for Ultimate Quidditch!" Regal said excitedly.
Driscol yawned tiredly. "Same. Although we did go to space earlier."
Paddles spewed out most of his drink in shock. "You what?"
Regal shrugged his wings "I've stopped being surprised after the triple consciousness, apparently he can now survive in the void."
We shuddered. Void. That word had a lot more meaning now. It was the name of a being so immensely powerful that he was one of two people that had made the multiverse. And it was the name of his realm- a place that served as a collection bin of the realms and the home of the Shadows.
Shaking off that train of thought, Kevin said "It was really weird, too. We couldn't hear anything, and our sense of balance went off, but we killed a lot of spaceships, which was fun."
Amara rolled her eyes and huffed. "Naturally you killed spaceships. Why wouldn't you?"
Sparta smiled. "Gravity beams for the win!"
We snapped our fingers as Driscol realised something. "We can use them on their tractor beam setting to grab and manipulate the balls!"
Sparta grinned "I can't believe I didn't think of that!"
"I could use my tails as a baseball bat if somebody throws the Quaffle to me." Regal said. "I can have a lot more power if I use my attack version instead of just hitting it."
Driscol looked at him quizzically. "Aren't your tails more for flight stability though? You have all those feathers on the ends. You'd be better off kicking it."
"I can recover if it's for one movement." The thunderbird explained. "Also, my other wings are more stabilising than my tails, and my tails are prehensile enough for me to do it." He turned to Jacob. "I'm pretty sure it's much more important for you."
Jacob nodded. "If my fins are damaged, bye bye sky. As evidenced by HTTYD 1, 2, 3, the specials, Race to the Edge, and any other related show that I haven't watched."
Regal nodded, then turned back to us. "I know my own abilities, so don't worry, I can use my tails as a baseball bat."
Sal sighed, shaking her head. "I've never been much of a fan of Ultimate Quidditch. It's completely mental."
Paddles nodded. "It is a blood sport, but I'm a big fan of it even though I can't fly. I have some recorded matches if you want to watch them. Nobody's ever died in a match, but there are a lot of injuries."
"And when he says a lot, he means a lot." Sal interjected. "Nobody escapes unscathed, and there's at least one person who breaks an arm or a leg."
Jacob nodded in agreement. "And the people doing it are either adrenaline junkies, thrill seekers, or just plain crazy. Cade's all three, but I thought you had a bit more sense Regal."
"Hey!" We yelled indignantly.
Regal tried to shrug, but he wasn't built for it. "Nobody is sane in my opinion anyways."
"Guess so." Amara said, glancing around the room.
Darius was cooking dinner, but paused to add his two cents. "Nobody in Locostral is sane. We've all lost something mentally, and none of us has quite regained it."
Regal shrugged off the rather depressing comment and said "Anyways, I'm now a Chaser and Cade is an Everythinger."
The whole room went so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.
Rosa broke the silence by asking "Is that bad?"
Jacob patted us on the shoulder. "Well you're gonna die, Cade. Can I have your severed heads when you do?"
Sparta looked scandalised. "What? No!"
Driscol looked around the room. "Why is everyone staring like us like we already have one foot in the grave again?"
Gem sighed. "Everythingers are generally the first to be knocked out of a match, and they get the worst injuries. Don't be surprised if all of the enemy team's Beaters and Everythingers come after you."
Kevin laughed. "And do what? We can regenerate! Who cares how hurt we get?"
Regal gave us a look. "Pretty sure you can still be knocked out. Also I've an advantage to avoid injuries: I've my danger sense, which works a bit like the Spider Sense, but a bit more accurate, I know where the danger comes from or is, and I can always ride a lightning bolt to avoid something flying at me, I can't be hurted in that state."
Slowly, everyone began grinning, and Paddles fist-bumped us. "You Sir, are going to be a great Everythinger."
Darius loudly announced "And dinner is served! Who's up for Pizza?"
"Hey cuzes." Amara said to us as we sprawled over the sofas after eating more than our fair share of food.
We gave a non-committal hum, our eyes closed as we tried to absorb ourself into the soft cushions. We had spent way too much energy today.
"You know what today is?" She asked.
"No." Sparta grumbled. "Now go away."
Driscol sighed, cracking open a bleary eye and focusing it on our cousin. "Sorry Amara. What Sparta means is that we don't want to talk right now. It's… been a long day."
"We should probably go to bed." Kevin suggested.
"I ache too much to move." Sparta groaned. "And I lack the willpower to move anyway."
"But the bed is softer and warmer…" Kevin moaned.
From behind us, we heard Gem sigh and chuckle "Shrink down to Jacob's size."
Too tired to argue, we did as our clan leader said. We were rather surprised when Gem scooped us up and onto her neck, but once we realised we were going to our room, we didn't complain. As Gem pushed open our bedroom door and laid us on the bed, we snuggled into the covers, pulling in whatever warmth we could.
"Goodnight, you three." Gem said softly as she tucked us in and turned off the light. "Pleasant dreams."
With Driscol and Kevin already dead to the realms, it was a muddled Sparta who murmured "'night, big sis..."
We were too out of it to notice, but Gem's smile broadened, and we could hear her whisper "That's not who I am, but if it's who you see me as, then why should I try to change your minds? Sleep well, little bros. Happy seventeenth birthday."
Then the door closed and we were left alone, except for the unfamiliar constellations of beautiful stars that shone in from our skylight and our family in the next room.
Snapshot #5:
Gem's smile only grew wider as she closed Cade's door. He saw her as a sister! For an only child who didn't have much social interaction in her life, taking other Plainswalkers into her clan and caring for them felt good, but this… This sense of belonging was what got her up in the morning.
It had all started from Jacob. She was the first person he'd ever opened up to about his past. He'd asked her if they could form their own clan when their old one had fractured, breaking into two from the sheer number of people in it. He was the first one to call her 'sister'.
Then there were Sal and Paddles. Both of them were grateful for taking them in, for accepting them, but neither of them saw her as family. They were close friends, but Gem knew that they were just that. Good friends.
Then there was Cade. Oh God. Cade had been hard… He took his introduction to Locostral fairly well, but she could see a noticeable difference in him every time they met. There was the empty, longing look of someone who was homesick, and it would get worse and worse every time she saw him. She knew that the sensation would gnaw away at him until he went back home, or took his life to end the emotional pain. Hell, Cade had done that before coming back to his senses.
And yet… at times, he was enjoying himself. Ot at least, using humor to get through life. He had Amara as his anchor, and hopefully her now too, and they could keep him grounded. There were also times where he'd proved himself a hero- the most notably being saving her from the control of Drago Bludfist's Bewilderbeast, and saving the innocent in his realm whenever he could. He was a good person, and he saw her as family. She'd be damned before she let her new little brothers come to harm because of something that she could fix.
Reaching the bottom of the ramp, she found herself face to face with Amara, who was looking at her with two of her heads, tracking Darius with another, watching TV with a fourth, and looking up at Cade's room with her fifth. Gem couldn't even begin to understand the concentration needed to be able to do that.
"How are they?" The five-headed dragon asked.
Gem smiled. "Sleeping. Sparta said something interesting though."
"Oh?"
"He called me his big sister."
Gem wasn't sure how she'd expected Amara to react to that, but wide smiles wouldn't have been her first choice. She probably would have picked jealousy as the most likely reaction to that statement.
Still, Amara was smiling. "Then like me, you're another thing for him to hold on to. Did you tell them that we baked them a birthday cake?"
Now Gem understood. "No. I decided to let them sleep. We can give it to them and do the song tomorrow morning instead."
Amara nodded. "You're letting sleeping dragons lie?"
Gem smirked. "Something like that. Cousin?"
Amara smiled back. "We aren't quite at that point yet, Gem. I don't know you that well, and I'm still rather new to this Plainswalking stuff. However, give it a few weeks, and then... maybe."
Gem nodded happily and moved on as Jacob squealed in joy after coming across a can of squirty cream in the fridge. She needed to move fast if she wanted to prevent mess-ageddon.
