Eight hit ground and ran. He checked and found they still had everyone.
Mother died. They went down to thirteen gods from twenty-two. The crux shattered in Light. Valhalla drowned in checkers.
"We avoid light where we can," Queen said. "The darker our surroundings, the less likely he'll find us."
Ace said, "The mages' guild could be his next move. He tried to bring it down before. He'll do it again."
"There's nothing we can do about that without travel." Seven adjusted their trajectory toward a big bridge. "The crux is down, and the gates are dead. Without those, we can't port. Our best option for travel is the dead roads, and that risks antagonizing the council."
"They'll understand," King said.
Deuce said, "They did before because a world was dying."
"Both the Void and Bhunivelze threaten their place," Trey said. "We can assume that the dead will do whatever it takes to protect their realms, even if it means stressing its boundaries."
Eight stumbled at the sight of Akademeia over the bridge. He remembered breathing his last. He remembered wondering if he was the last one to go.
"Where are we?" Yeul asked.
"Home!" Cinque threw her arms up. "But why is no one talking about Mother?"
"Because there's nothing to be done," Sice said.
"Why have none of us come here before?" Yeul asked.
Queen hesitated. "We thought that we could keep it out of the fight."
"Figured when we came back," Jack said, "we'd be heroes again. Mother would be proud."
Cater said, "We're heroes anyway. I'm sure Mother was proud."
They crossed the bridge in quiet. Yeul came up beside Eight and asked, "Who was your mother?"
"Arecia Al-Rashia, Sorceress of Rubrum. And a fal'Cie of Pulse."
"Why would a fal'Cie of Pulse fight against Bhunivelze?"
"Why would I know?"
"Is the mages' guild our priority?" Trey asked.
Nine said, "Yo, we're headed to Valhalla, right? Gotta take back what's ours."
"The galaxy has shifted," Deuce said. "We need reconnaissance. Should we split up and head to multiple targets?"
Ace grimaced. "That'll leave us open to attack."
Queen said, "We aren't staying long. Oddly enough, Nine is right, our priority is the reclamation of Valhalla."
Mwynn directed them to bolster their ranks with the Cie, and they were given their roles to keep the universe safe. But Queen was a better strategist than he was.
"And the Cie?" Yeul asked. "Why not work with them now?"
"They failed," Queen said. "We're still here and we are running out of time. We'll do what we should have done from the start and end this."
Cater stuck a fist in the air. "We don't need them, anyway!"
"If you truly believe that, then why bring me with you?" Yeul asked.
"You didn't turn on us," Ace said.
"Neither did they," Jack muttered.
"Not on purpose." King gave Jack a pointed look. "But they still fell to corruption. To accomplish our mission, we have to see them as threats to be eliminated and nothing more."
Sice groaned. "Come on, we're still trusting this one?"
Yeul said, "I have no reason to stay with those who do not share my purpose."
"Don't you wanna save the worlds?" Cinque asked.
Eight caught Yeul's eyes. "You'd be safer with us."
"My safety means little if I face a future without my friends."
"Our end goal still includes their return," Eight said.
Sice said, "Too bad for us, Mwynn didn't expect this outcome when she made the system."
"Inside," Queen said as they reached the gatehouse.
They entered to find it empty. Where were the lookouts?
The red gates shown bright in the dim room. Queen snapped her fingers, removing the magical gates and allowing the class to enter the school proper.
The fountain courtyard remained how he remembered it. They cleaned up the bodies and blood. The fountain didn't run. Leaves gathered in the dry bowl and somber winds blew more across the yard.
"The Phoenix still burns," Trey said. "I am confident that students or faculty have remained to safeguard it."
Queen and King pushed open the doors and they entered the school proper. The old classroom portals still stood, but a layer of dust grew around them. The hallways remained glistening and bright otherwise.
"H-hey!"
Eight drew back at the sight of Carla, accompanied by students he didn't know. A class Seventh and a class Third. Carla pointed an accusing finger at Class Zero and hurried to stand in their way. Then she threw her hands out to the side to mark her place as "in the way." "Who are you? What are you doing here? Why are you wearing Akademeia colors?"
"Carla." Queen rested a hand on her hip. "I'm sure the crystal excised every trace of us from your memories, but we don't have the time to go over the finer details. We're borrowing the command room. Please, send whoever runs the school now, and we'll bring them up to speed."
"You're the bodies," Carla whispered. "Those ones stacked in Classroom Zero, even though the only members of that class were…"
"Hm." Queen picked up her stride again and climbed the stairs to the command room.
"What about her?" the class Seventh student asked, pointing at Yeul. "She doesn't have a uniform."
They ignored her and moved on. King threw open the doors to the command room and strode in. The screen was down and the desk empty.
Trey retrieved a box of table-markers and got to work setting up a visual. He placed wooden blocks and wrote out small, glowing letters in the air to name them as planets. He kept his writing concise and legible.
Yeul blinked. "Etro's script."
Trey didn't look up. "I thought it appropriate."
The door opened and Rem appeared in its frame. Her mouth hung open and Machina stuttered to a stop beside her.
"Remski!" Cinque jumped and threw her arms around Rem.
Cater rubbed her hands together. "You remember us, looks like."
"Do you?" Jack asked.
Machina managed a nod. "Yeah."
"They were l'Cie at the time of our deaths," Trey said.
Seven frowned. "Why do you have shards?"
"Mother sent out the shards Bhunivelze left in his destructive wake," Trey explained. "If she chose Rem as a successor, I find it quite likely that—"
"They told us the phantoms from Classroom Zero were back, I didn't…" Rem forced a high-pitched breath. "I shouldn't be surprised. Given you all, I shouldn't."
"We've all returned millions of times in the past," Queen said. "Also, we're borrowing your table."
Machina tensed at Yeul. "Who's this?" he asked.
Seven said, "Paddra Nsu Yeul of Nova Chrysalia, previously known as Gran Pulse. Not to mention the Goddess of Death and heir apparent to Etro."
"I have lived every generation of Gran Pulse," Yeul said, "as Seeress to the Goddess. I was the first human born of her blood and I was made in her image."
Machina glanced about them. "What, someone who can finally outstrip you guys for sheer power?"
"This girl?" Nine asked. "Hell, no. Yo, she may be the new Etro, but we're the new Mwynn."
King said, "She is an equal."
"Something's changed," Rem said.
Cater released a dark chuckle. "The good ones are dead. The only one surviving of the old generation is Bhunivelze."
"Who?" Machina asked.
Sice rolled her eyes. "You should know him as the reason that everything here happened in the first place. Lindzei and Pulse were just trying to wake him up from some nap by ripping open Etro's gate."
"Even our gods would treat us so callously," Rem said. "It's no surprise."
"Etro would not have done such," Yeul said. "But Lindzei and Pulse were not so kind with humanity."
Jack leaned against the wall and threw his hands behind his head. "Too bad Etro's dead."
Queen narrowed her eyes. "Anytime Etro attempted to interfere in the events of the mortal world, she disrupted the flow of time and space. That power, moving without containment, from Valhalla to our realm, is destructive at best."
Rem said, "Sounds complicated. What is there to do, for us?"
"Not much," Eight said. "But keep an eye out. If the Order of Light comes your way, shut it down as fast as you can."
King tapped the map. "Order is an excuse to cause as much damage as possible to bring about his vision of eternity."
"Great," Machina groaned.
Eight looked back to the board. "The void?"
Trey had drawn rudimentary glyphs over worlds, marking the presence. Blue Terra and Gaia V.
Ace grimaced. "The void is free again and these are the two worlds that have been hit hardest by them in the past. Whether or not the void will prioritize them again is anyone's guess."
Trey placed the same glyph upside-down by Gaia II and Gaia VI. "These are the next most likely places for the void to attack."
"How do you figure?" Cater asked.
"We do not have the adequate time to discuss the entire process of elimination." Trey placed a new glyph by Eos. "Accept, for now, that I am the God of Knowledge, and have resources—"
"Okay, I get it." Cater pouted.
"Do we prioritize Gaias II and VI?" Eight asked. Queen watched Trey's placements and said nothing.
"Hey, uh…" Machina shifted his weight. "I'm sorry. By the way."
Nine scrunched his face up. "About what, yo?"
"We're over all that crap," Sice said. "Bigger things to deal with. And stuff."
"I'll accept your apology." Deuce stuck out a hand. "It means a lot to hear you say it. I'm just sorry you went through so much."
Machina looked at her hand and tensed before taking it. He turned red and shook. Deuce gave him a hug.
"Not for nothing," Cater said, "but it did suck to betray us like that. Promise you won't do it again."
"He won't do it again," Jack said.
"He doesn't need to," King said. "We've got enough on our plate that escalations of this planet don't mean much."
"Eos," Queen said. "What's going on there?"
A flicker of a smile crossed Trey's face. "The time of Eos that runs concurrently with our timelines is plunged into a years-long night. All light there is powered either by electrics or fire, and there is not enough of it to be visible to Bhunivelze's eye. Not yet."
Eight nodded to himself. "A safe zone."
"Exactly." Trey placed more blocks and drew slashes above them in the air. "We may have alternate paths there—specifically outside of aforementioned options. These are Shadow Worlds, designed and created by beings on our level of power."
"Cosmos and Chaos," Queen said. "That twisted world is run by Materia and Spiritus now, we don't want to deal with them unless we have to."
Trey huffed. "That is not the only Shadow World."
The door opened to two people in battle coats. Tiz and Joker.
Tiz said, "We have your shards, if you want them."
Jack kept a wary eye on her hand. "The shards Mother sent?"
"And they're not the only ones," Joker said. "She dispersed herself before dying and scattered power to the nine corners. We've got time before Bhunivelze regathers himself enough to go after them."
"Hey, we haven't seen the two of you in tons of cycles," Cater said. "Where have you been?"
Joker said, "We've got similar origins to the twelve of you. Mother removed us from the cycles to watch from afar a long time ago. We've been content to settle by and watch."
"Until Mother died," Cinque muttered.
Tiz said, "So long as any part of Bhunivelze remains unclaimed, he'll have a corner to run back to. You can't kill him before you've retrieved what's been scattered. And so long as he lives, the Cie will bow to him."
"They'll come after us," Nine said. "He ain't gonna treat his soldiers as anything better than grunts, yo. We gotta get ready for them."
"We can barely travel," Seven said. "How are we supposed to go on a wild goose chase without the Crux?"
"…Nine is right," Queen said. "I'm certain that it won't be long before we see the others again. We are their biggest threat, so it's only a matter of time before we find our chance to draw them out."
Trey finally stepped back from the map. "Each one drawn out lowers the defense of Valhalla."
"You mean…" Cinque clapped her hands together. "We want them to come to us!"
"Perhaps," Trey said. "If so, it's a ploy Bhunivelze will observe quickly. We'll have to make it count."
Sice scoffed. "How about instead, we make a half-hearted attempt and come home crying when it doesn't work?"
"That's the plan, then," Ace said. "Empty Valhalla and reclaim it."
Trey's map sat as a grim reminder of their odds. Eight caught Ace's eye and found him just as uneasy. But they made it through worse before.
Noel reached for his neck when it stung and wondered why it hurt there of all places. Why he stood in Valhalla. Why Lightning screamed and split in two while Hope didn't twitch. Why Vanille collapsed to her knees in tears and Snow struggled to breathe. Fang was nowhere to be found, neither was Yeul, but Dajh and Sazh and Serah remained with the rest of them, so that was… good?
Feet wet, Noel found himself without shoes. The toes looked discolored in patterns of dark and pale, with forming edges between shifting colors.
Serah joined him, cheek split and bleeding, and said, "Look at us, finally together for once! Until we get our orders, we can just rest and talk!"
"Rest." The thought felt so foreign to him. "Why would we rest?"
"Because we've got nothing better to do, silly!"
Snow joined them, breath returned to normal, and wrapped an arm around Serah's waist. She leaned into him. Snow said, "We've made it, huh?"
"Yeah," Noel said, though it rang hollow to him. "We're… together."
"Where do you think we'll go?" Serah asked. "I want to check out that place you grew up in, Snow. Would you show me?"
"It's nothing special," Snow said.
"You're just saying that."
They gushed about their worlds and Noel watched Snow's Hallowed Brand shimmer and bleed on the left forearm. Serah's showed similarly on the same arm but higher.
Bhunivelze's Brand, the one He used to Keep them. It left a sickening thrill in Noel's chest that boiled his blood and chilled his toes. It brought a rushing wind to his lungs and a dreadful weight to his shoulders.
The rest recovered while he wasn't looking. Lightning spoke with Sazh and Dajh while Vanille met the girl that split from Lightning (who also looked more like Serah.) Hope stood at a distance, his expression unreadable. Noel wondered if they also felt so disoriented.
"You'll get used to it," Serah said as if reading his mind. "Valhalla is a little bleak, but after you spend a few months here, it'll grow on you. Not that it can grow much because of how this realm works, but… you'll come to like it better."
Noel swallowed bile. "I think I'll go… take a run."
Serah smiled at him and bade him go. Noel took off and ran down the beach. The city spanned the visible horizon and Noel followed it around. His legs moved faster than he knew them able and he felt no strain on his lungs. He felt good running like he didn't have muscles to injure or feet to burn. He felt free.
He knew the numbers gathering of those that wanted to see the end of their God's rule. He and his friends thought the same not so long ago… but they didn't understand then. Not that he could explain it that way to Sarah and her minions.
Noel slowed to a stop near a tower that stretched almost as high as Academia's Scrapers. The ocean sparkled a vibrant turquoise color and moved in the slightest ripples.
He touched the water with toes and stepped into the water.
When he first crossed the borders because they brought him back from the dead, something sparked inside him with the taste of immortality and he knew the water to act like air did because it existed in the same space.
Noel lifted his foot again and placed it on the rippling surface. It didn't fall. He took a breath and ran toward the horizon.
Feet slapped water, but it didn't feel as cold out here. The impact didn't hurt. He only saw the horizon and its fleeing clouds. Like God chased away the darkness. And Noel chased it back.
He didn't know why it filled him with such desperation. He didn't know why his chest hurt at the thought of losing all that darkness. Why the light behind him burned as an angry and washed-out loneliness. Maybe because it reminded him of the crystal dust back home and how it blinded him to look when the sun was full. Maybe it was because of how bright the sun was the day he lost Yanny. Or maybe because of the shimmering crystal Natarle wore on her wrists.
Bhunivelze's command drew him to a halt and said, "Find Yeul."
Noel watched those clouds vanish beyond the horizon. He stood at Valhalla's borders where the Cleansed Historia Crux waited as a sterilized reminder of his power and opportunity. And beyond the Crux flowed the endless tides of the Void. Its vastness made Noel dizzy.
Limbs moved on their own and Noel released the tension holding him on the ocean surface. He dropped through to find the twisting vortex of the Crux and took it to Fang's location on Gaia IV.
He landed in a lush land with humid air and sparkling skies. He found Fang tormenting one of the locals in a small command room.
"Bout time you showed up," Fang said before kicking her victim in the shin. "This place hasn't seen the girl since she left."
"This is her home world," Noel said. "Either she comes back later or we'll have to find her somewhere else."
"Serah didn't tell you where to go next, huh?"
"Serah's busy with other things—and she'd need time to find Yeul here anyway. You gave yourself to Bhunivelze faster than any of us… why is that?"
"What's it to you?"
"You left before the rest of us finished Ascending. Did you always follow Bhunivelze or something?"
Fang scoffed and rolled the battered lady over to show a bruised and discolored face. Her broken jewels and mussed clothing looked like that of an academic. She cursed them with all the strength of someone beaten to a pulp.
Fang said, "I just didn't need as much convincing."
"It's strange is all." Noel watched her taunt the broken scholar. "Don't kill this one, okay?"
"I'm not gonna kill her. I'm not an idiot."
"You look like you really want to."
Fang snarled. "Don't diagnose me, Future Man. If Yeul isn't here, then where are you headed?"
"She follows heroes and villains. And seeing as she didn't come with us, I can only think of one place she'd wander off to."
"And?"
"And we should prepare for resistance." Noel opened a portal and Fang dragged herself to join him.
They left the scholar to suffer and made for Orience.
The sun faded enough outside that Rufus watched Leonora try to coax Palom into reviewing the star chart they started days ago. Palom wouldn't take his eyes off the darkening sky. Palom also refused to speak and acted like he wasn't there at all but somewhere else. Somewhere far away and safe from light—
Rufus yanked his attention from the two and distracted himself with the knots on the porch overhang. One, two, ten, fifteen, twenty…
"Rao, Rikku?"
Rufus looked up to see little Shinra staring at him with unblinking eyes. "What did you say?" Rufus asked.
"Ruf tu oui vaam ypuid drehhan lypmac?"
"I don't understand your language."
"Vygat funtc. Cruimt fa cylnevela dra bufan un hud?"
"I said I don't understand. If you're wanting help with something—"
"I'm sick of talking in Spiran." The kid pulled a cord from his pocket. "Why do you always use Spiran?"
"I don't speak Spiran."
Shinra scowled and took a seat beside Rufus. "Stop kidding and tell me what you think of this."
Rufus took the cable and Shinra went on in that language of his like he had no idea who Rufus was. The cable felt thick and smooth like nothing else he knew in this settlement. The spaceship this kid used with his friends held the only modern technology Rufus saw since Ivalice and he wondered when the next time was that he'd taste Edge's whiskey.
Shinra went quiet and stared off into the distance. A light breeze disturbed Shinra's hair enough to show those swirling eyes that looked like some concoction of Hojo's. And he bore scars to match, yet he claimed to not know the taste of mako energy.
"What world did you come from again?" Rufus asked.
The kid looked up at him as if seeing for the first time. "What are you doing here, old man?"
"I came first, so I should think that question mine. First, please tell me what world you're from."
"Spira."
"And you thought I was Rikku."
"You—no." Shinra squinted, features twisting in confusion. "You're… were… tyt. My—"
"I'm not. But mistaking me for another is better than getting sick at twilight."
"Who got sick?"
"Porom. She's worse than most."
"Even Arc?"
"In her symptoms, yes. Arc handles his crystal madness as well, but that appears disconnected from his light sensitivity."
"Do you dream about Eos?"
"You refer to dark roads under a clouded sky and blue runes glowing in the eternal night?"
Shinra nodded without looking at him. "It's not just me, then."
"You haven't asked the others?"
"Have you?"
Rufus remembered violence when he thought of talking to others and he remembered blood on his hands and arms and slipping on wet grass. "Have you counted the knots above our heads?"
"Knots?"
"Those hanging from the ceiling. There's quite a few. There's 116."
"You're weird."
Rufus stared at the rope tied in odd patterns and wished the kid would catch on. He didn't have time to explain every little thing, but he also didn't always run into such odd types.
He left the boy to his work and sought out Alus in the Tower. The child king rested on the highest floor, in the one lit room with light.
Rufus put his hood up and kept to the shadowed corner away from Alus' bed. "We can't stay here," Rufus said. "I hope you realize this."
Alus breathed shallow and hefted himself into a sitting position. "Is it morning? So soon?"
"Have you arranged for our departure?"
"I don't have any ships to travel beyond this world—"
"We have one already. I refer to your own circumstances. We won't leave much beyond those bound here."
"I don't need your entire army."
Rufus shut the curtain and approached Alus. "Whatever's caused this illness will pass. But it doesn't do any well to leave a king like yourself floundering. Do you have a plan?"
Alus groaned and moved to dress. "My servants would make this a lot easier."
"And yet you left them at the castle."
"I don't trust them."
"And I barely know you."
"And even I can say you're not the hovering type. Why do you care so much about my affairs?"
"I've already said. Never mind. I'll leave you to get dressed."
"Sir Rufus."
He refrained from correcting him. Even after the time he spent in this camp, it disoriented him to be called by his first name by everyone as if they were so familiar. But better that than to be confused with the alien child outside. "Yes?"
"Thank you for your concern. I've not been focused as I should on my duties and I've neglected my people. I do not deserve attention with such carelessness, so any kindness warrants sincere thanks."
"It's not kindness."
"Yet it's generous all the same. Thank you."
Rufus swallowed the weird feeling he got from that and returned downstairs. His insides twisted and churned. He knew the feeling of shards, but he didn't remember picking them up. He also knew Alus wouldn't have the strength or knowledge to find some.
Gladio approached Toan in the back fields. "Everyone that comes here makes quick friends," Gladio said. "You haven't."
Toan looked up at him, all narrow lines and wearied eyes. "I have friends."
Gladio scoffed and took a seat beside him. "You seem like a good kid. But you also seem like the type to hide a lot of crap. That reminds me of someone I know, and you know what happened to him? He got eaten by crystal."
"Well, that… isn't as strange to me as it should be."
"What are you putting off, kid?"
Toan fell still. "You won't believe me."
"Try me."
"… I have some bad memories that I've forgotten. But there might be something valuable in those memories."
"And that's unbelievable?"
"Well, they're memories of something that never happened. Well, I have one timeline that I remember just fine. Well, I remember most of it. But there's another version of reality where everything went wrong. I failed. But I can't really remember it."
"What could you want from a failed timeline?"
"Well, not me so much. But everyone else. I was… normal. But not everyone else, I think. And we can use that."
Something about his words struck a chord with Gladio, but it left a crawling sensation in his chest. "Your friends had badass powers in that timeline?"
"Basically."
"And you want to unlock them. Hm. That's not a dumb idea, kid."
"But how?"
"Beats me. I don't have alternating timelines on my world."
"Most people don't remember them."
"I'm not most people, kid."
"Fine, but I still don't know how I'm supposed to go and break the walls in my mind caused by the healed timeline."
"How do you remember that other timeline?"
"It made me remember."
"And this other one didn't? Why not?"
"I don't know."
"Then it sounds like you should start with finding that out. Big decisions like to trigger that kind of nonsense. Destiny doesn't like to get screwed with."
Toan returned to sharpening his dagger. "I'll have to think about that one."
"And ask your friends if they were involved. That Luneth brat seems like he'd remember a thing or two if anyone did."
"… He would."
Gladio pulled his sword free and Toan lent him the crude sharpening stone. "You just gotta find the damned kid."
"Or I let him find me again."
