King still tingled from his imprisonment.

"Down!" Snow yelled in time for Bhunivelze to sweep the field with his scythe and send time splinters spraying. "And go!"

Eight protected Hope and Yeul, who had little to do here. Dajh at least had the power to heal, but these two were rendered useless by Bhunivelze's power.

And Bhunivelze would kill King's brothers and sisters. He could because they destroyed Valhalla and made themselves vulnerable. But why wasn't Bhunivelze made the same?

King joined Trey on the outskirts. "You knew he'd go to Valhalla," King said. "How did you figure that?"

"Because the Cie saw glimpses and acted out of sorts. Beyond that, they developed an unusual fascination with the place toward the end—"

"Did they say anything else? Any indication of how Bhunivelze works?"

"Hope and Bhunivelze are bound. I imagine one is weak to the other."

King looked to Yeul and Hope while they dodged Bhunivelze's missiles. More like Yeul dodged and Hope followed her. "Shoot straight."

"Yes, sir."

King moved to Hope's side and pulled him aside. The missiles didn't follow. King waited, tense, and Hope stilled beside him.

"I knew it," King said.

"You have to kill me, then?"

"I hope not."

Yeul slipped behind Hope. "Are you forever fused?"

"Maybe," Hope said.

"Then killing Hope would assure our victory," she said.

Hope turned. "Sice!"

"No!" King moved between Hope and Sice. She heard his racing thoughts, and he cursed his inattention. "We won't sink to his level!"

"Pansy." Sice appeared and kicked him aside. She grabbed Hope. "Hey, Bhuni! You want me to cut this kid's throat and end this for good? I've got a few people I know that would love to see his blood scatter across the ages!"

The air stilled and King felt something sickly in his chest. Bhunivelze didn't turn.

Trey jumped to a new spot, but every shot ricocheted. This monster had no soft spots, it seemed. He was better off running and not fighting for the rest of forever at this rate. "Fang!" he called. "Nine!"

They landed beside him. "Found something?" Fang asked.

"I have an idea. Have you jumped to his head? I've tried shooting there, but maybe it's a directional setup. If you aim from the right angle at the right location, then perhaps we'll find a weak point."

"Try for the head, got it," Nine said.

"Not just the head—"

"Got it!" Fang leaped and the force rustled Trey's jacket. Nine followed.

Trey dodged another shot. Dajh sprinted past. Vanille covered him and let off her own spells while she ran.

It didn't make sense. If the rest of them were made vulnerable, then Bhunivelze should be the same. And with so many of them, Bhunivelze shouldn't stand a chance against the rain of weapons.

Unless…

He couldn't finish that thought. Something gripped his chest and he stuttered before shifting strategies. They fought a losing battle. It was time they gave in.

Wait. No. That was wrong. No, it was necessary. It was right.

He struggled to stand. His head split with a pounding ache. An attack from which side? Rather, which side did he trust? Only one of them lived through the ages and had the wisdom necessary for rule. The collected knowledge and pools of intelligence. The experience.

Queen shouted, "We've lost Trey!"

"Son of a bitch!"

"But he can't take people here! Can he?"

"He hasn't taken the Reds, yet! They're still vulnerable!"

"How the hell do we shake someone out of it here?"

Trey wondered the same. He could fight it. He knew they were right. Yet he didn't. But he could fight Bhunivelze off anyway and that might tell him. Or he could do what he needed to do ever since he Ascended.

He straightened and nocked an arrow. Then aimed for Dajh.

"No!" Cater barreled into him and toppled them both to the ground. "Remember, damn it!"

She flooded him with thoughts of working together and listening to Mwynn. Reminded him of saving the worlds and all the lives they found themselves responsible for. "But I was never meant to—"

"Try again!" She pushed him further and drowned him in memory.

Sice released Hope when Cinque came after her. He stumbled free and reached for magic. And came up dry.

Bhunivelze used it all. Because they were linked.

More than linked. They were twisted about each other like cables on a storage shelf. They used the same resources because they couldn't separate themselves.

King fought with Cinque and Sice. Sice would turn eventually and overtake him. She kicked him towards Bhunivelze and into his barrier.

Hope looked up at Bhunivelze towering over him, distracted by Hope's family and their weapons.

If only Hope had a weapon to end it himself. But all he found was broken arrows and scattered bullets that shattered with time.

She couldn't keep up with all of them. She barely got Trey loose before Jack and Cinque fell. Fang and Nine returned to report on their jump, but Trey didn't seem able to absorb it.

"Jack!" Cater hit him from a distance and flooded him with the same thing she hit Trey with. But he resisted and Cinque was worse. "Don't do it, damn you! Whatever happened to conditioning?"

"We're still in his realm," Trey swayed in place. "We're still under his rule because he beat us in Valhalla."

"Well, I refuse that rule!" Cater forced out conscious thought with all the reminders she could muster until Jack and Cinque froze from the overload. "I'll make it impossible!"

"Not for everyone!" Fang yelled before tackling Nine and wrapping her spear around his throat. "Hurry it up!"

"I can only do so much!" Cater focused on Nine, but her attention sputtered. "Especially before he gets me. See if Jack has a shot!"

Sara stood on the precipice of her castle, ready for the monsters that encroached on their gates.

"Why can't you stay out of trouble?" her father asked upon joining her. "And why can't it stay away from you?"

"Because I invite it over, Father. I go out of my way to bring chaos and disorder to our home. And I relish the worst of it."

"Careful, I might believe you."

Ruby joined them and took a seat over the battlements with that magic of hers. "I'm headed to the Continent's center," she said. "Anything you people want as a souvenir? I can bring back lands, entitlement, trinkets..."

"News would be sufficient," said Father.

"I can already tell you that Alus is out of his depth. And that a Princess from another realm set her foot in the door of the Crystal power vacuum. And that I can't believe I care about all this now. You know, I never tracked this kind of nonsense before. But I guess I was also trapped in a lamp before."

Sara smiled at that. "Ingus told me that story."

"And did he tell you about his history with me?"

"Everything he remembered."

"Hmph. He's already introducing you to his in-laws, then."

"We're losing altitude," said Father. "We'll crash into the planet."

"Not if we have anything to say about it." Refia landed beside them and earned an impressed look from Ruby. "Luneth's coming. Where's Desch?"

"Already gone to the Tower," Sara said.

Father looked between them. "And Ingus?"

"Also coming," Ruby said. "You'll want your docks ready."

"How's the other continent?"

"Toan's gone to guide efforts." Ruby kicked at the ground. "Best we worry about this guy for now instead."

Refia visibly strained. "This is a lot of weight. I don't know how I'll keep it from falling."

"That's why you're not doing it alone, dear," said Ruby. "Even for such a refined and powerful being as myself, this is a royal pain in the butt."

"Got it!" Luneth flew past them. "Move toward the center! We've got a better chance there!"

Refia grabbed at Ruby. "Hey! He's getting ahead of us!"

"No, he's not!" Ruby took Refia and they flew off after Luneth.

They barely cleared the castle before Father grunted and Sara turned to see the shadow of approaching airships.

"They provided vessels enough to evacuate the entire continent," Father said. "I never thought I'd see so many."

A deafening crash sounded and then a crackling like lightning split the Continent in two.

Aerith felt the pull of the poisoned planet as a wire spread through her. She resisted, but the pain would take her eventually.

"This is close enough," she said when they reached a weak point. "It's vague, but when you feel it—"

"I feel it." Rufus crouched over the growing plants and shattered wood. He hid fatigue. "There is no weak point."

Aerith swelled with the veins of life reaching for them. Rufus' shards confused them. "Not with that power of yours, no. But if you hold on too long…"

The Lifestream reached for them, mutilated though it was by the invasion of foreign planets. The souls milled about, distracted, and she felt sick for the bloating beneath them.

… It caught.

Aerith lost traction and grabbed Rufus for stability. He didn't react to her hold, distracted as he was by the spirits surging through him. She moved her focus to them.

Unfamiliar power rushed past her and Aerith wondered at so many lost foreigners. She couldn't house wanderers such as these.

And yet as she thought on it, a distant voice echoed her way. It whispered guidance and calm.

Bhunivelze's hold on this world remained by a thread. It would take a breath of force to break him out.

The connection disrupted. "Out of the way, gnats."

"Ultimecia!" Aerith put herself between her and Rufus. "Go on! I can handle this!"

"Can you, dear?" Ultimecia twisted time about them and Aerith felt the slip of minutes.

Aerith puffed up and threw herself into Ultimecia. It repelled her and Aerith left, stunned. Ultimecia took Rufus by the throat and tore him from the planet's defense.

Aerith screamed, but the souls of the planet took her back and forced sanitization.

Fusoya hung about Golbez in cool wisps of a presence. Despite the trembling of the World, Fusoya spoke in measured beats. "Raine has confirmed evacuations near completion. They ready to launch as we speak."

The Leveilleur twins and Y'shtola worked with Rosa, Kain, and the rest to make the Void vulnerable. But no magic would matter until that thing made itself bare to them.

Noel felt space as a shifting heap of pieces. He couldn't find a grip to pull or push himself. He couldn't form portals or move his weapons through. Yet there was something out there he felt. Something solid and distant.

He connected with a far-off gate and it pulled him toward its timeline. He resisted. That was a version of reality where he lost himself to regret. Another grabbed for him where Serah died earlier in the journey. Another where Snow did. Another where he fell in love with Serah and another he traveled with Hope. Once he killed Caius, and once he killed Yeul. The shards churned endlessly.

"Serah!" He settled on Bhunivelze for an anchor point and leaped. "I've got something!"

She flew his way and Noel caught her. "Where?" she asked.

"When. We used fragments before to empower ourselves, didn't we?"

"We did, but they acted so strange—"

"Could we find some to help us out here?"

"Maybe, but there's so many and finding the exact one we need—"

"But we could?"

"We'd have to grab so many at once that we'd risk a reaction between who knows what elements. We could kill ourselves instead!"

"Only temporarily, right?"

"Not necessarily."

Noel dodged more missile blasts. "Then we'll test them one at a time. Can you slow Bhunivelze?"

"I've tried, but he's too messy! Too complicated, I mean. And this place makes it worse!"

"Wait." Noel looked between her and the shards. "They work differently now. And you've been avoiding them this whole time. What happens when you take a fragment?"

"It makes me ill."

"You're the goddess of time. How could you not handle time?"

"It's broken here."

"So's space, but I still have something to hold onto."

"Get down!" Lightning barreled into them and Noel dropped in time for Bhunivelze to swipe the place with his scythe. Deuce and Snow dropped.

Lightning flew off again.

Serah scrambled back like something bit her. "I don't know how to use it like that!"

Noel said, "But you could! Look for Hope in Luxerion!"

Mog reverted from bow to moogle and lit up in pink sparkles. "It's like the old labyrinths, kupo! You'll get it in no time!"

Serah hyperventilated. "That can't be right!"

"It is, kupo! Noel, cover us!"

He took stance. Mog took Serah and they leaped into the splintered facets of time. Queen and Ace turned and came for him.

Laguna tensed as the new moon got closer and closer. Saving the world never got old.

"Volley ready?" he asked over the comm system. He got a confirmation from all but one team. Fujin confirmed ready through Raine, and Seifer complained through her about Irvine.

The moon drew closer and closer. Raine watched, all ghostly lines and quiet. Her presence reminded him to act cool.

"Evacuations?" Laguna asked

"We've retrieved all we can, and fighters are out of blast-range. Ready to light."

"Then fire when ready!"

A roar sounded and Laguna watched the monitors to see smoke from the silos. Warheads zipped through the sky, trained on one spot.

"Ready for the second volley," he said.

"Preparing second volley."

Laguna couldn't deny that joining Raine was appealing. But he couldn't. Not yet. He couldn't leave Ellone and Squall. Not yet.

She gave him a look, like she knew what he thought. How did she do that? Raine swore up and down that the dead couldn't read minds.

Light exploded in the screens.

"Second volley, send!" Laguna said. "Control, where's our next target?"

"Calculations underway, president."

"Cameras 8-12, 15, 25-31, and 57 are burnt. We're not getting those back."

"Second volley directions are sent."

Laguna watched some of the cameras alight in time to go again. "Ready third volley."

"President! We have movement from an unknown object across the merge! It's spewing out unknown energy!"

Horror dawned in Raine's face. "Of course. With the merging worlds, we share energy and life. Worlds with magic share theirs and those without, those that have been starved, those that have missed that magic—"

"You know what that is?" Laguna asked.

"… Vivi does."

Edward woke and couldn't remember why he slept. He found himself surrounded by fallen stone and thick roots. Thick dust filled the air and he smelled smoke.

He coughed and stumbled to his feet, leaning on a root for support. When he took his hand away, he felt a scraping burn in his palm. Best not to touch unknown plants, he reminded himself.

He looked around but couldn't place his location. Heat, smoke and dust, and all he could see was stone.

He grit his teeth against an alarm ringing distant in his ears. Covered his mouth with the sleeve of his right hand and moved towards a shifting light. Heat prickled his skin and he grew sticky from sweat.

Fire. That was a fire.

He moved in halting steps, body too sluggish to keep up with his hazy thoughts.

Edward recognized these walls. He was in the cellars, and it was his wines that burned. But why weren't the strange roots burning? And where did they come from?

He found the stairs. Where was Harley? She was never far—even if everyone else left, she wouldn't be far from the castle.

Edward made to open the cellar door. The handle burned.

His head swam and he wondered how that could be when the fire was downstairs. He kicked the door open and found a raging fire.

Panic clawed at his chest through the daze. He'd burn himself without protection.

But he had protection. Right. He was a bard.

So many songs on the tip of the tongue, but when he tried to sing, his hoarse throat stopped him. He resorted to humming, but it still came off broken and ugly, and did he even hear it at all?

He walked through fire, kept from burning by the song he hummed to himself. If he could get to the front door…

He tripped. Edward caught himself and winced at a pain in his ankle. A hole that fell directly to the cellar. He burned.

With a renewed tune, he dispelled the heat again and made it to the front door.

Edward stumbled into the courtyard. Breath rattled in his lungs and brought on a coughing fit.

It was dark without the fire. There was no smoke here, except that which came from the castle.

Hands took him. Harley pulled him away from the door and towards a gathering of advisors and servants. They all moved but Edward heard nothing.

Harley's mouth moved as if speaking, but Edward still heard nothing.

The sky was gone, overgrown by thick roots stretching over everything beyond the stone.

Thrumming in his head and healing took him. This terrible new power of his had its benefits, it seemed.

Mist flowed from the ground and away from the castle. Towards the origin of the roots. With his cursed power, he saw the mist of souls, moving to be devoured by the eater of lives gone.

The mist was not a morning one. It was the only thing that could escape this tree-prison.

He kept moving, towards the source of those roots. Harley hurried to keep by his side, and he heard something.

She grabbed his arm and looked at him with eyes full of fear. Her face was battered and discolored.

He meant to ask what happened, but the words caught in his torn throat.

She said something in response, but it still muffled in his ears. He still understood that she urged him to stay.

"I'm not wasting precious time whilst my kingdom suffers, Harley," he hoped he said. "You understand, don't you?"

She reluctantly nodded. He turned towards the roots and kept walking. Harley kept beside him and he felt her every footstep.

Missiles lit the sky in shifting hues. Gippal took hold of the largest cannon in Zanarkand and powered up its homing beacon. That shifting and gluttonous tree made its own target in the shrinking world.

Ground tore at his feet, but Gippal held steady. Auron guided him. The cracking stone and the tumbling atmosphere shook his aim. He gripped the machine tighter and willed himself to focus.

Mist overtook them. His sights fogged and Gippal swore. His gloves grew slick with sweat. He swallowed the adrenaline and settled in. He only had five shots.

He fired and it went wide. The inner barrels needed more oil. But Gippal couldn't give the thing more maintenance.

He fired again and it fell short.

"Wait!" A kid in worn clothes slammed into the ground and rolled.

Gippal twitched, hand still on the trigger. "Who are you?"

The kid groaned and hefted himself back to his feet. "I'm a Crystal Person from Ur! I noticed a lot of dead people here and—!"

"Cut to the chase! What are you doing?"

"I gotta—I gotta help! Gimme a minute and I can get these souls all vessels to borrow! Sorry and thank you!"

It glowed on the horizon and moved like a pumping heart. Auron learned from those in the afterlife that knew it, and Gippal learned from Auron.

"Focus," Auron reminded him.

Gippal took aim again. His ammo was lighter and less precise thanks to corrosion. But he could compensate.

The ground rumbled and metal shifted. A hand took his leg and Gippal kicked back. "I've almost got it! Give me a break!"

"Sorry!"

He fired and it hit. The Tree's cry of pain hit him as a gust of wind. "Looks like it worked. Now I just gotta do that as many times as it takes for it to fall."

"We have allies," Auron said.

"We have—" Decayed bodies and shambling skeletons left the ground and shook themselves loose. "Zombies?"

"Or so it seems."

The new kid strained under an invisible weight and moved his hands in twitchy and unnatural motions.

Auron betrayed little surprise. "To house the souls."

"And protect them from that monster tree?"

"Or so it seems."

The mist thinned and Gippal found a clearer line of sight. "Perfect."

Refia stumbled and floated behind Ruby. She couldn't see how Ruby moved so smoothly and so fast. Refia felt like her strength would give any moment now.

"It's so heavy!" she cried. "How can only the two of us hold it up?"

"Oh, you're helping, too?" Despite her quip, Ruby's skin sheened with sweat. "Don't worry. Desch's grip from the Tower should make all the difference."

"But I don't feel it!"

"I was being sarcastic, dear. The boy's surprisingly immature for his age—I doubt he knows how to operate it the right way."

"He's a thousand years old."

"At least. As I said, he's immature for his age."

"Are you sure you're not talking about Luneth? … I guess that technically makes four of us."

Luneth screamed with delight as he blew past them. He never stopped moving since they caught up.

"Keep it at three," Ruby said.

Yeul took Deuce and the others' places and searched for those wandering souls. Her specialty lay in death and the traversing of souls between lives. She might not guide them to the right place in life, but she would keep them from dying outside their time.

But then something nicked her by. Most of these souls were new—fresh. People that died during this splitting and merging of realms. But some other souls stood out. Their voices called like desperate sirens for guidance.

Yeul filled with remembrance. They still owed a debt to those dislodged unjustly. They could still be returned.

"I cannot grant it to you," she told them. "I can only give you a beacon, and then you must find it yourselves."

Shimmering relief mixed with a grumbling reluctance. They accepted her offer.

Yeul sought out the anchor of their mortal bodies, still somehow retained in their separate worlds. She established a link to those bodies and the souls split off to find them.

As easily as she found them, she lost track again amidst the swirling vortex and confusion. Yeul refreshed her hold for focus and guidance, but her untrained mind struggled to keep up.

"Be quick," Yeul whispered for the rest of the Cie.

Krile zipped through space. Her consciousness reformed piece by piece as she followed the light of her belonging. Thoughts once fractured drifting regathered themselves and she remembered coherence.

She left Amarant. She hoped he'd tell her when he found his way. She feared losing the link. It felt thin as glass and would shatter with the slightest disturbance.

She couldn't say how long she flew through nothingness and stars and ocean, but she burst back to life in a shower of crystal.

It took seconds to remember how to breathe. The room she appeared in was cold, grey, and empty. Commotion sounded outside. She had to find Lenna.

Hope broke free and made for an arrow that Deuce discarded.

The Reds made way for him, but loose bullets and wayward spells forced him off-course. He barely got through a wall of fire and ducked between two fights. Time licked at his feet and ages past pulled for him. The time he lost on Nova Chrysalia, the age he skipped in Academia, and the blink of a transition between Crystal and revival.

The arrow sank, but Hope reached it in time to yank it from the hungry depths. This was his chance. He could end it all in a heartbeat. He could save everyone.

Heart pounding and breath catching his throat, Hope steadied the arrow against his chest. The thrum of his heart felt like an invitation. Like it begged for release. And he could give it this time.

His face heated and rage coursed through him. This was his chance to finally repay Bhunivelze. For once, he held Bhunivelze's life in his hands instead of the other way around.

Someone tackled him.

Lightning held him back and yelled, "Don't you dare!"

"No!" He scrambled to keep hold. "This is our chance!"

"We'll find another way!"

"We won't! We're at a stalemate! I'm the only way we have and once he sees, then we won't get another chance!"

"I said we'll find another way! Trust me, Hope!"

"I do! But this is beyond you!"

"We're together in this, you idiot! It's all of us or it's none! Whatever happened to watching my back?"

"That's what I'm doing!"

"Seven!"

Hope chilled. Seven joined them and despite the possession in her eyes, she agreed with Lightning.

"No!" He fought their hold, but they were stronger. "NO!"

Ingus landed in open plains. Sara, her father, and his best captains took the other ships to their locations while Ingus accepted the job of rounding up those hermits and outcasts that listened to Doga and Unei's summons.

Ingus disembarked with one of his ship hands and scanned the region. "Masters Doga and Unei, where are those you summoned?"

"Coming." Unei materialized beside him as her younger self while Doga borrowed the body of the ship hand. "Patience, young one."

"The circumstances make patience difficult." The ground jolted and Ingus steadied himself against the ship. "Can we not speed this up? Onion Knight, what can you relate from your position?"

The Crystals hummed and the Onion Knight's faint words muffled with the distance of too many miles. "Little… busy. To… carry… back…"

He swims in Valhallan waters. The Lady Sarah nears her position.

"And how goes Toan's work in Queens?"

Not from Queens. He moves between there and Rozarria's borders.

"Rozarria?"

The worlds are merging. Borders collide and territories collapse.

"We need more time," Ingus said.

"Then I'll provide!" Doga left the ship hand.

Unei said, "He has a favor he can pull in from the powers that be."

"Then I'll hope it sufficient," Ingus said.

Lulu stood on the exit ramp of the Celsius as it flew over Bevelle's misted walls. None would follow until she cleared the place.

… If she cleared the place.

"Drop the line," she said to the Al Bhed waiting inside.

A sharp hiss and grappling hooks shot out from the left and right. They hit the center tower. Lulu took the left one. The taut rope burned her sandals and the way down was steep. She caught on the way and used magic to steady herself again, but it ripped at her soul to do so. By the time she reached the tower, her body ached from overuse.

But here she stood. The Celsius retracted its rope and pulled away for safety. There was no telling what might take them otherwise.

Lulu looked to Zanarkand's horizon, but mountain and otherworld cities blocked her from them.

She reached for that horizon and pulled. Against the burn in her veins and the shredding of her insides, she flared the power of her shards and she pulled with all her strength.

The mist drew to her and filled her view. Lifeless and over-cleansed things filled her nose. She gagged on debris and shuddered against the unnatural fog. The shards mixed with the fog hastened the draw toward undeath.

An angry presence, deep and vast, raged against her. Lulu fought back, but it tore through her beaten body. She dug her heels, but it yanked at her back and her knees buckled.

Lulu screamed and yanked back. The force shuddered at her power.

She kept pulling and the beaten, distracted force recoiled in fatigue. But it wouldn't leave. It was entrenched in its place and she was loose on a high tower.

"Lulu." Yuna approached her, tattered robes floating about her. "Lulu, what are you doing?"

"You need to ask?" Lulu chuckled despite the dryness in her throat. "It would be a lot easier if I had you helping. Isn't there a small army of senders inside your walls?"

"Yes."

"Would you be a dear and bring them out? I might use them."

"We couldn't beat it even with everyone sentient."

"I can change that." Lulu released the other wretched consciousness and reached for Yuna. "Begone, spirits. There are other bodies for you to inhabit."

Yuna cried out as Lulu ripped stray souls from her.

Braska visited with Gippal, Auron, and the dead-faring child. Amongst all the rising bodies, they looked themselves like those passed.

"She's brought Bevelle to the brink," he told Gippal.

"Shouldn't you be getting out of here?" Gippal asked.

"It doesn't matter anymore. We Farplane spirits can't stay away forever."

Gippal fired his last and gave a heavy sigh. "Then I guess now we both sit and wait for it."

Braska put a hand on his shoulder and Auron trembled within. He fought worse exposure than Braska.

The air crackled and they snapped their attention back to the Iifa Tree. Estharian missiles hit it from afar.

Cater barely revived Cinque before going herself. And Bhunivelze's sickness hit Nine hard enough to turn him into a raging beast.

Fang yelled before launching him and taking the fight above the others. She could keep him away from the rest, but there were more Reds than Cie.

"You know better than this!" Fang yelled.

Nine bellowed and rebuffed her. Fang took after him.

"Don't prove you're this stupid!" she continued. "Don't let him win!"

"It's just about that, isn't it! You only care about victory, yo!"

"I do when victory determines the fate of everyone alive! You need people to lord your power over, mate! And I know you need that more than any of us!"

"This establishes my power just fine!"

"Does not!"

"Does too!"

Fang punted him down again, but Nine rebounded off Bhunivelze's shoulder. "And what'll you get out of this?" she asked. "Where's your reward, oh gallant knight?"

"Don't call me that!" He careened into her and they crashed into the shifting sea of not-Valhalla.

"You're dodging the question!" Fang chased him back into the sky. "You would need something big to want to do something so stupid! Unless you're an idiot!"

"Am not!"

"Then why would you do something so stupid?"

"It's NOT!" He threw his spear and pinned her.

Fang yelped and hit the ground in a tumble. Pain clouded her vision. Dajh was busy with someone else. He wouldn't get to her in time.

She yanked Nine's spear from her and stumbled in place, both lances in hand. Nine shook himself loose and approached with an angry saunter.

"It's screwed up," he said. "But orders are orders, yo. And the boss knows best."

"Funny how everything changes when that thing talks to you. One suggestion and everything flips right on its head, doesn't it?"

Nine growled and reached for his spear. Fang stabbed at him, but Nine twisted out of the way. He wasn't hurt like her.

Shit. She wouldn't last long. So much for immortality.

"Don't make me do this! I don't want to hurt you, yo!"

"Then you'll just have to get over yourself, won't you?"

He reached again and Fang backpedaled.

"Pardon me," came a lofty woman's voice. "I raised you better than this, Nine."

Fang said the words without thinking. Nine drew up short.

"We have reserves," Fang continued against her will. "They're taking the rest of your siblings. Now be a dear and see reason before we beat it out of you.

"… Mother?" Nine asked.

"Not just."

Fang felt the influx of souls through the fragile realm of their war. The ocean of shards parted to let in the souls of the dead. Bhunivelze shrieked with disdain at the contamination.

"We're here to unlevel the playing field," Fang said. "Pick your side, my son."

"Wait!" Serah burst in and tackled Nine. "I've got it!"

"Got what?" Fang didn't finish before something pierced her.

Serah gave a flick of a gesture to Fang before she stepped away and faced Nine while Fang stumbled about with a new churning in her chest.

Serah threw Mog to Snow and ran to Lightning. Fang blinked away the confusion and jumped. Nine chased her.

Something changed with Serah's gift. It wasn't power. It wasn't a spell. But it shifted her perspective and the way space felt. She sensed something within Bhunivelze and that something felt almost tangible.

Arecia whispered to her the origins of phantoma and its collection.

Fang kicked Nine back and took hold of that something. She pulled and Nine screamed.

She stopped, cold. Nine stumbled away, breathing ragged. Fang searched for another one of those deep and complicated energies. They radiated about the space. Some of it rolled bigger and brighter and more deafening than the rest.

Fang reached for that massive, shifting energy. She pulled again and Bhunivelze roared.

Vanille hurt at the sight of Hope being restrained first by Seven and then by Cater. Serah barreled to Snow and transferred her discovery to him. The shards of memory barely stretched far enough to get to those two, Lightning, Noel, Vanille, Fang, and Sazh. That left Hope, Yeul, and Dajh.

Vanille joined Fang and felt Bhunivelze's phantoma before grabbing it herself. The figments of memory that Serah brought back weren't enough to make Vanille confident in this, but it granted her hope.

Another presence joined her and whispered guidance. She whispered that Bhunivelze was a lot bigger, heavier, and painful to take than the average soul, but that she had him.

Bartz felt the worlds collapsing into each other amidst the sparse bursts of bullets from the NORA crew. Memory and power granted him by Cosmos cooled his fingertips and he waited as the Warrior of Light began the spell.

"There's still only eight of us, man," Tidus said.

The Warrior said, "Cloud will join us soon."

Terra retrieved her sword and copied Onion. The color of the energy, white for Onion, was pink for her. She breathed deep and the magic soaked into her. Her eyes flashed and her hair reflected pink, blonde, white, and green.

The rest followed. Firion took orange, Cecil purple, Squall brown, Zidane a deep blue, and Tidus yellow. Bartz stabbed into the stone and pale blue rose and engulfed him.

Wailing echoed from the planet. All of them shattered and soon, there would be nothing. These worlds could become nothing despite eons of struggle.

But not on his watch.

Bartz took hold of Planet R and held it as faux gravity tried to devour it. An unimaginable weight crashed against his spine. The others didn't seem to fare any better for the grunts and muttered curses.

With dawning horror, he realized the Warrior must have miscalculated. "This doesn't cover all of them!"

"Once the final two heroes join, it will be all we need," the Warrior said.

Bartz watched with unreal eyes as only nine of the twelve worlds slowed their descent.

"The Void monsters increase!" Lenna yelled.

The ground shook and Bartz lost focus as his physical body fell. He blinked open sore eyes. The world shifted into shattered buildings and floating debris. An explosion of light, and it fell back into Exdeath's castle.

Bartz struggled back to his feet and reentered the Cosmic connection. He retrained his hold on Planet R. Eight people for twelve planets.

The burden lightened. Another joined them. Bartz said, "Good to have you—"

"Sorry I'm late," Cloud said.

"Had some problems on the way?" Zidane asked.

"I'd say so," Tidus said.

Cecil said, "Yet we are still short the Onion Knight."

"Yeah," Bartz said. "Short, just like he is."

"Hilarious," Squall said.

Terra said, "He fell into Valhalla. How are we supposed to get him back from there?"

"That was Valhalla?" Firion asked.

"We cannot reach there without becoming lost ourselves," The Warrior said. "We will have to hold these worlds ourselves until such a time as the new gods can recover and return him."

"Wait," rasped a familiar voice. Bartz struggled to turn enough to see the newcomer.

Krile breathed heavy, skin shimmering with crystal veins fading away from her. Her face was blue still. But she moved and she had her hands out and posture taut as if pushing something back. "I can help."

"Who are you?" Tidus asked.

The weight eased. Bartz almost dropped his hold again out of shock.

"Krile!" Lenna shouted. "You should rest!"

Krile shook her head, sweat dripping from her forehead. "Only the ten of you contain the Memory required to do this. But I cheated. I lingered between worlds for a long time, and I learned things from listening to the Crystals too long. I don't have the same power as the official wardens, but I can help you hold out until they arrive."

"I doubt we'll need them," Cloud said. Squall chuckled at that.

Bartz adjusted his position enough to reach Krile and put a hand over hers. She glanced at him, eyes glistening with crystal dust and tears, and gripped his hand back.

Maqui ducked behind a battlement to reload.

"Man, these do a good job of keeping evil at bay!" Yuj yelled to Gadot. "Where'd you find the mods?"

"Lebreau got them from some planet!"

"How?" Yuj asked Lebreau. "There's hardly any civilization out there like ours!"

She let off a couple shots. "Just gotta find the right world!"

"Perhaps those other civilizations do it better," Balthier said.

Maqui finished reloading. "Assuming there are civilizations after this."

"There aren't worlds, now," Gadot said. "But we'll fix that."

Maqui forced a swallow and a nod, then got back to his feet and faced down the crunching and shifting forest.

"Wait," he said. The others went on like they didn't hear him.

The forest churned, unnatural waves rippling under roots and causing a deafening clash. Trunks merged. They said it was an effect of the collision, but a shadow moved in the twisting forest.

"Guys," he said. No one answered.

Something slithered between warped roots and joining branches. Something wormlike and expansive. The shadow encompassed at least a kilometer of ground. The forest shrieked—a trembling and unknowable sound.

"Guys!" Maqui aimed where the shadow showed between the trees. "We've got a big one!"

The fire behind him slowed and Lebreau swore under her breath. Maqui fired the first round but couldn't say if it hit with the thing so far.

"We'll need something a lot bigger for that," Gadot said, breathless.

"Gotcha!" Yuj jumped from the battlement and Lebreau shouted after him.

Maqui shouldered his gun and primed his AMP rings. "He's right," he said before leaping off the castle's stone edge.

Wind pummeled his face and stomach before he triggered a cushion of anti-gravity and fell into its gentle take.

The electric bubble faded as quickly as it appeared and Maqui took off to get a closer angle. They needed to find the weakness on this monstrosity before they could hope to take it down with only the four of them. The horde was bad enough on its own.

Another shriek sounded and it rattled his eardrums. A tendril-like leg burst free of the forest and landed on a swarm of fly-monsters.

Maqui froze as the thing's "head" emerged, full of eyes all in the wrong places and a half-formed mouth that barely covered its black-slick teeth. The limbs were hardly better with their melting flesh and twisted muscle. It crawled like a headless, spasming spider through the shaking ground and forest.

He moved, almost numb, out of the way of another leg that staked itself through the dirt almost within arm's reach. He moved by autopilot and angled his double-barrel to point at the thing's underside. He fired off five good shots before the thing finally hesitated and gave an almost-curious squeal.

"Maqui!"

Yuj's half-scream of terror knocked him free of the shock in time for to feel something slam into him and send him flying.

The world spun. He crumpled against the ground. His hip crunched from a bad roll and—

Arms felt backwards. Something didn't sit right in his chest. Breath gurgled through his throat.

Someone groaned beside him, a deep and gravelly sound. Maqui couldn't turn enough to see them. The AMP rings on his fingers felt stupidly intact and unused.

The other person grunted, and a big foot nudged him in the side. "You ain't dead yet, are you?"

The voice filled him with a sickly feeling. Maqui struggled to speak, but managed a raspy, "Amarant. How."

Pounding footsteps and Yuj dropped to Maqui's side, whispering a rapid chant. Despite the foreign words, Yuj's voice was familiar. But Amarant was there.

"Don't," Maqui said. Don't hurt him. Don't kill him. The words didn't make it past the blood in his lungs.

A grunt and Amarant thundered off. Dark blood flew above him. Gunfire filled the air. Lebreau and Gadot shouted afar off. Gadot asked Yuj for an update. Yuj said something, but it swam in Maqui's ears. When Yuj resumed chanting, that did too.

Somehow, he found one of Yuj's hands. He held on to it as long as he had strength.