The warmth of the air and water.
The beautiful constant auroras in the skies above.
The blue sun in the far distance, the pillars of water that reach up to the very heavens themselves.
The waterfalls, the mountains, the flowers that flood this place that flourish in the dry and wet areas regardless. Trees of all colours clustered and spread out across this vast land of almost infinite.
The soft sand beaches that spread far and wide. A pure white.
Houses and homes made from the land itself. Time bearing no weight here. People had time to learn, to grow and prosper in the timeless realm of the Farplanes.
Food and water was never lacking. With a thought or gesture it would be there. And if you could not think it, you did not need it. Hunger and thirst did not exist.
Chad was sitting at one of the beaches. Knees up to his chest, looking out to the sea beyond.
He hated this. Regret filled him despite the place trying to make him accept it and relax, to embrace the pleasure of boundless freedom.
He didn't want to be here.
Memories of a life he had forgotten had flooded back. He missed his family. He tried to look for his father but he wasn't here. He sought after his mother but she too did not exist here.
He had met Liu Bei. Zhang Fei. Sun Quan. They welcomed him and told him to join them. All of those from the hero base and Earth V that had perished had stuck together to continue their friendships.
But he knew someone wasn't going to be there. Waiting for him. Smiling and hugging him. Telling him she missed him so, so much after she was taken…
He did try at first, just to take it on the chin. Maybe the others would be here, to welcome him? The one he left behind on Beyondard. Maybe she was here, He didn't want her to be but to have someone close would help right now.
No sign of her.
He looked for one more. Would she thank him for keeping her safe? For never leaving her side when all hope was lost?
But she wasn't here either. No one had seen her.
...She was either reborn into Ruth...Or she too was taken by Death to-…
He felt tears escape him again. "It's, it's not fair." He said through gritted teeth as he closed his eyes. "Why. Why did this happen. Why did I even listen to Sabek? Why didn't I refuse so I could keep Ruth safe? To keep Elie safe?"
He opened his eyes as he felt the sand in his hands...that so soft and wonderful sand that simply slipped through your fingers. He looked down to it.
He tried to grab some, throwing it towards the ocean. A small billow of sand escaped his hand, and gently landed down before reaching the sea.
He dug deeper into the sand with his hand, the warmth swallowing it as he tried to search for something, anything to use. To hit the water with. To see an impact.
But this sand was perfect. Completely fine with nothing in it.
He focused on it now. On his hands and knees. He wanted to find something, anything as he kept moving the sand around. Something to throw, something to say it isn't perfect.
But there was nothing for him.
Every time he made a small hole in this sand, it would fill in moments. It would never let him keep an opening for long. Making a small mound of sand would only cause it to sink back into the rest, keeping the coastline picture perfect.
He tried to dig faster, but it got nowhere.
He used a Chaos energy beam. The blast created a momentary hole before it vanished.
He tried again and again with that. It can't keep up, and this heat from the energy should be causing the sand to partially melt into even the tiniest misshaped object.
But it didn't.
Perfection.
He yelled out and smacked his fists into the sand, tired from his own frustrated attempts when a voice spoke to him.
"You could just go to the mountains after making a pouch and grab some bits of rock, or a few pebbles from the many rivers around here. It'll be easier."
He looked to the flowery grassland connected to the beach.
There was Lucy Valentine. An older one, her hair long and beautiful, wearing a long sleeve pink shirt, brown trousers and black shoes. She was carrying a leathery brown pouch, which when she walked over to Chad she passed it to him to look inside.
Pebbles. Shiny, perfectly round pebbles, no bigger then the very middle of his hand. "You can have this one. Making these passes the time."
He didn't answer her. He just sat down looking out to the sea again, as she sat down beside him.
"Your friends are a little worried. They saw you were looking distressed when they showed you around their, well, beginnings of a little village. I take it you, might know my name?"
"…"
"Well. I'm Lucy Valentine. Universe 2."
'Figures.' He thought to himself, grabbing a pebble and throwing it out to the sea, the splash of water as it hit felt, a little bit satisfying.
"You know a lot of people struggle. They often try to do this. I did when I worried about the future of my children. To make an impact still. Validate yourself that your doing something."
"...Who gave you the pebbles then?" Chad asked her quietly, still clearly focused on the water.
"Darkmega. He was worried about me and after I was telling my husband over and over I want to see my children, he gave me them and told me to throw them." She smiled a little towards him. "I tossed the whole bag. Told him it didn't do anything for me."
Chad simply listened after throwing another pebble.
"But he got me another one. From Dr Wily. I threw that too. Then Xiahou Dun gave one to him. Tossed that….it was by the eighth pouch that Darkmega got from Dark Rich that I finally opened it and started to throw each individual pebble. He smiled and said 'There. When you've done you can ask Charlie how to make them, seeing as you just tossed away several other people's collection of rocks. Especially mine, I did little smiley faces on each one!'"
Chad looked a little dumbfounded. "Why did he do that?"
"Left a mark. Unlike this sand we can use anything else. You take the pebbles, new ones come take their place from nowhere in time. Apparently Chaos gave him some then gave some to Chad to start trying to get them both to relax, but instead Chad just smacked Darkmega around with the pouch full of them till he was tired. Pain doesn't exist, so during it Darkmega was wondering if they could get some ribs together as Roxas suggested the idea to him before Chad got here. Once my husband was tired out he realized what Darkmega asked in the midst of being smacked around and the stupidity of it made him laugh."
That made him smile a little.
"There we are. That's a start."
"So your husband? Who is he? How did he know Darkmega? Or, at least YOUR, Darkmega?"
"Chad of Universe 2."
Chad's smile continue to grow. "That's great to hear. I've yet to meet my Lucy. Haven't seen her since Beyondard...Well. I'll probably meet her in time now I'm here."
"In time." She moved a little closer to him. "But for now, you have people here. Friends at the very least...and, if you need comfort. We're here too. I know we're from a different Universe but, we're all in this place together. Never hurts to extend a helping hand to cope." At the end of saying that she placed her hand out to him.
He sighed, placing down the pouch and holding her hand as they both stood up.
All of us are here.
Chad heard that...a voice he felt shouldn't be here. He glanced around but there was no sign of him.
"You okay?" Lucy noticed the sudden shift in Chad's body as he was briefly alert.
"Yeah I—I don't know. Thought I heard something."
She was clearly curious. "What exactly did you hear?"
"...Richard. My Richard. The Dark soul."
"Well he hasn't appeared so far. Maybe it's just, you expecting him?" Lucy kept hold of his hand as she picked up the pouch and started to walk away from the beach, Chad keeping with her.
"Most likely. Boy do I have a story to tell you about that. See, in my universe Richard has...-"
It was eerie silent, within the hospital.
Chad's body sat on one of the beds, looking down at itself.
Elie remained in her sleeping state, her arm still being healed from any infection.
Blue was beside her, watching her as well as Chad's body whilst Medi was in the cryo room getting a new blood bag for Elie.
Ruth was with the body, along with Quickman and Hub. Dr Light had attached a transmitter wire into Chad and up to the hospital computer. Dr Wily and Regal were with him, looking at the results they were getting.
Sabek stood before Chad, clutching tightly the Muo-Ping. He still hadn't gotten over the fact Chad's soul was gone.
Diamas was by the door, making sure no one entered at this time.
"...He is gone." The Life Soul, as it revealed itself to all those present, spoke through Chad, though his voice was slightly distorted, a slight buzzing sound of interference came with it. Dr Light had already noted it's because of the energy levels in Chad are bare minimum. In a few more minutes if they didn't connect him to the computer the Life Soul would've shut down permanently.
"I'm sorry." Sabek managed to say, his mouth dry.
"This has just been one thing after another with this boy..." Dr Regal looked over to the man. "Can a soul even open the jar by itself?"
"I, no. No I don't think so. I've never heard of such."
"Who else entered the labs between the time the jar arrived and now?" Dr Wily asked his son.
Dr Regal thought about for a moment. "Well I was in there the entire time. The only people I saw come in besides yourself, Dr Light, Laserman and Shademan was that Light clone of Richard and Blues."
"Interesting. None of them would have any need to access the cabinets..." Dr Light continued reading the energy levels inside Chad.
Medi had returned now and went over to Elie to change the blood bag whilst Blue needed to ask the docs something. "So this...Life Soul. What is it exactly?"
"That's a good question." Hub looked to Chad's body.
The Life Soul glanced around at those before it. "I am the Life Soul. I am a program born by the Soul Unison program."
That caught Wily's attention whilst Quickman decided to ask "The Soul Unison made you? You sure? I looked into that program before not installing it and I don't recall it saying its able to make the souls that are used into active living separate programs of their own."
"Under normal circumstances it shouldn't. I use Soul Unisons and I don't have additional programs installed from it." Hub added.
"I was awoken by the power of the Holy Materia. A side effect of Chad absorbing it into the keystone I was contained within. Once the keystone was destroyed I was absorbed, morphed and adjusted into his body, and thus reborn as a program to reside within him. I am now a part of him."
Dr Wily moved towards the body now, making sure he was in it's line of sight. "Keystone...I recall them. Chad and Darkmega had one each. Showed them to me and Thomas before we headed to the meeting with the other forces on how to defeat Unicron. They came from Zuo Ci."
"Correct."
"Where did he get you from? Do you know that?"
"I...recall. The face of a human with eyes showing the stars. He was what I saw when I first woke up. I saw him…" Chad's face showed it was clearly trying to think about this. "...Talking to another. A greater being with a blindfold. Too far away to be heard and we were tiny, no bigger then your hand. Then when he returned to us, the last I saw was a wave of his hand. Then I slept until I was called. Released."
"And I assume Darkmega also has another you?"
The Life Soul shook Chad's head. "No. It is the Death Soul. It absorbed the power of the Black Materia. It's power differs from mine."
Albert started to mull over it when Dr Light stopped focusing on the computer. "Got some good and bad news. Good news we can give you enough power to stay on Life Soul...Bad news is if you leave here, you'll have 10 minutes at best before shutting off. I can't get the body to accept any further power. The organic parts of Chad are relying on what we're feeding you at the moment and taking up most of the energy to avoid decomposing."
"So I'm trapped here...What will you do? How will you get back Chad?" The Life Soul asked them.
The doctors looked to eachother, then to Sabek.
He looked to the Muo-Ping, and sighed deeply closing his eyes for a moment. "I honestly don't know how, much I have material to look through. Maybe there is something we can do to call him back?"
"Like make a deal with Death?" Diamas suggested about.
Sabek looked deeply worried at the prospect of that. But noticing the others were looking at him in curiosity he had to explain. "Y-yes well. That's one way I would rather avoid if at all possible. Making the circle of Dinok, Death in Thu'um, requires sapient blood. Human, Mobian, that sort. Then the summoning requires praying to him, which means you must abandon all other gods. You hear stories of those who do, and after meeting Death feel like they have been stripped of any luck or fortune as the other gods have turned away. Finally you need to make an offering, or gamble your own soul against him. He asks for a high price."
Ruth then thought of something. "Does Chad have a backup? Can't we use that?"
"He and Richard are not the sort you can backup. Those sort of Navi-hybrids have been tested for backups before...It ends horribly." Dr Wily shuddered a little. "Still...this is the best we can do for now. Thomas we should head back to the labs. Regal, stay with Medi to make sure the energy output remains at acceptable levels for the Life Soul. Oh...and Medi, once Elie's wound looks a lot better, let us know and we'll begin grafting the skin on for her."
Regal and Medi nodded to the elderly doctors as they moved past Diamas and headed out to the main room, towards the lab.
Dr Light looked to his friend. "That Life Soul. What's your summary of it?"
Wily looked slightly concerned. "Virus. Disguised as a program. It was made to latch onto Chad. Purposefully by Zuo Ci."
"Can we trust it for the time being?"
"...I'm going to talk to Darkmega. See what he makes of his own. Then I'll know if it can be trusted for the time being."
They entered the labs, where Laserman was waiting for them both. "I was about to call you both to come here."
"Is there a problem?" Wily asked him, before the large Navi stepped aside.
Letting them see that standing there waiting for them was Lady Luck, within her silver robes, a faint holy aura flowing around her and her pearly white looks staring straight at them both. "Dr Albert Wily. Dr Thomas Light."
They could feel it. This sense of divinity coming off her. Like a messenger or a god itself was upon them. The door to the labs seem to lock itself, surprising Dr Light.
"I am the throw of the dice, the turn of the card. I am the lady of the million-to-one-chance. And I am here to tell you of your future. To avoid the sudden ill luck that has befallen you and those around you."
Chad sat with...those of the Hero Base.
Not his though.
This rather pleasant looking cluster of homes made from steel, iron and stone belonged to those of the Hero Base of Universe 2.
Gods it was strange to see his family...close to being complete here. He saw his mom Aurora, his dad Alex, his sister Iris and younger brother Trill. All it needed was his older brother Colonel and it would be all set. At least, this Chad's family would be.
Lucy had remained by his side throughout. She showed him how thinking of where you wish to go and wanting to get their quickly can make you fly on command, arriving with little to no difficulty. How you can simply walk across lakes and rivers instead of swimming. She explained that the iron, steel...even the odd piece of technology they had was from the mountains. You seek the material, it shall appear as you dig. Eventually the mountain will heal itself, and you can start again.
You couldn't simply wish to have the technology, you had to build it yourself. Raw meat and fish must be cooked. Ores to be melted to make the material, the likes of steel, copper, even large chunks of glass could be mined. It was all back to basics and with the infinity of time where, to the outside universe it's been 300 years, to them it has been far, far longer.
There were some things that would come if wished for though. Blades of magical properties, items of very deep and personal connections. Things like these would appear if sought after. Lucy said it was a link of the souls, items closest to them could be manifested. But not replicated. She mentioned her husband tried getting ten of his Blade Of Darkness just to see if he could transform each one into different forms to hang up to no avail.
They all seemed to have adapted well. Heck they seemed to continue pursuing relationships here, even if they couldn't exactly make new life, they could at least gain comfort in one another. And if not from other humanoids they could from taking in pets.
Lucy explained to him that if you needed that comfort, the Farplanes could create animal life to be with you. Cats, Dogs, it mattered not. Whereas those on the planets would pass and return to the lifestream, here in the Farplanes those created by a simple wish will remain...even if it is for food, as T Hawk, Xiahou Yuan and Jak had a small ranch of Buffalo at the edge of the village, which T Hawk killed once in a while for meat, but the next day another Buffalo would appear to take it's place.
Zhang He, Anna, Zelda and Lucy herself tended to a rather large mixed garden of flowers, fruit and veg. Growing at unpredictable paces but it made them alert to the garden at all times as they never knew when the next blossom would occur.
Dr Wily, Light, Regal, Rock, Roll, Blues, Forte and Hub had managed to create a small power grid. Establishing a small amount of lighting for each home and were now aiming for making a factory for creating superior parts to enhance this place further...It was slow going, since they had only laid the foundation at least. But they didn't care. Breaks were very frequent and a few people from millions of years back in the depths of the Farplanes had managed to create a library, so books were shared around which distracted them greatly as they sometimes had to learn a new language to figure out what was written.
Chad was surprised war didn't occur if people could make things.
Lucy confirmed they did. But the lack of pain and dying kinda kills the mood quickly. Those that are war mongerers have to resort to play dying. If they get hit, they play dead until the battle is over.
Those of Universe 2's Earth V love it along with many others from across the stars...except for their Yuan Shao, who as Chad overheard, yelled out in fury that once again his been stabbed in the back by Cao Cao at the very start of their mock battle and if it wasn't going to be Cao Cao it would be Link, as the 'damned Hylian always got a bullseye right in the middle of my head!'.
Chad had now found himself sitting at a round table with a map drawn on leathery parchment in the middle, small wooden figures of monsters and people, with each person around the table with a roll of paper and quills with ink pots, along with an assortment of wooden dice. Besides one who had several books with him.
Nearest to him was this Universe's version of Chad who, as Chad of 3 had looked over again and again, was very much looking like Nameless. He even sounded like him as he spoke but unlike that person who seemed to be just downright miserable, this Chad was happy. He was relaxed with no worries coming off him, happily shaking Chad's hand when he arrived and kissing Lucy like no one else was around.
Next along was Lucy, then Blue Light, Zhao Yun, Vector the Crocodile and a guy named Roxas Oswald. Sitting with the books was a man called Yuri Gargarin, who was bald, had a goatee, a large brown coat on with gloves, a strange device around the back of his head with several wires coming out and down beneath the back of his coat, Lucy explained it was a Psychic Enhancer, and tattoo on his forehead were a single letter of the Thu'um language which Lucy said was 'Hah', Meaning 'Mind'. He had one open and was talking;
"Your brave group now enter the growling stomach of the beast Unicron. Within were large metallic vats, containing something that released acidic steam as you quickly notice far above that Unicron's victims were being carried by mechanical claws across an automatic pulley system, and as they passed over the vats, dropped their victims who screamed for their lives before hitting the unknown substance within."
"Bet I could push those vats over!" Vector quickly looked at his scroll of paper. "I would like to check for traps first though, can't be too careful at this stage of Unicron!"
Zhao Yun looked a little confused. "No offense but, my Net Navi is made for scouting. Perhaps I should check for traps instead? You might set one off."
"Pfft no what are the odds?" Vector nodded to Yuri before picking up a roughly made 20-sided die and threw it on the table...clearly showing a 1 which led to everyone else around the table playing the game groaning in unison. "Aw nuts."
"As you take just one step forward, Unicron's entire being seemed to shift. It was clear he was alert to your arrival in his stomach as out of the walls came steel vice claws extended by thick, metal cables-" Yuri began to explain.
Chad of Universe 3 smiled at how things were. "It's great to see you guys...well...living. After death. So are all of you here then?"
Lucy looked away from the game to speak to Chad. Her character was a pink haired Hylian cleric in it which the Chad of Universe 2 already got his character into a romance with, due to, as that Chad of 2 explained 'If she's just Lucy but an elf and that hot body, well, ain't gonna lie, I'm gonna home right in on it.'
"Well. Not all of us. We're still missing a few."
"After 300 years? Who?"
"Well the Autobots and Decepticons for starters. We thought Soundwave would be here but he must've got rebuilt at some point. Ridley's still got about 200 years left in him I think. Barrel never reappeared after an incident with a space station that he was on. Medi...I don't know what happened. Darkmega passed away before her and as far as he knew, she was planning to shut down. He thought, ya know, suicide. But obviously not. Shadow has an unknown lifespan. Lan ended up just as unknown as Medi, but Hub did mention Lan intends to turn himself into an AI to make sure no one messes with anything in the base. Then there's Xiahou Dun, Samus and Pang Tong...All are deities."
"Deities? Them?"
Lucy nodded. "Yep. Promoted by Zuo Ci. Pang Tong did it for the temptation of immortality, Xiahou Dun done it to follow Samus and her… Well, it turns out when we thought she buried her issues with Ridley, as she got older she showed she really hadn't at all, just was very good at hiding it. She wanted to outlive him and make sure he doesn't ever cheat death. Then there's Rose. A deity who helped Chad out so I guess she's still out there? I mean Sephiroth comes to visit from the mountains so deities, at least a part of them, come to rest here in the Farplanes if it's over for them...finally, there's Dr Rich."
Chad had to think on that. "...Richard Wily right? Normal one?"
"Normal was debatable. But regardless he never came here. Never reunited with his sister. Faith is-oh, Faith is his wife I'll introduce you later- she's sure she saw him once in their home. He said he'll never make it home...and he was sorry he let everyone down. That's the last she heard from him. He just walked away and, that was it. Wily thinks his probably haunting the fortress out of regret. 'the boy never did cope well with failures'...maybe he was finally dealt with by Zasz. One of the last villainous survivors we had."
Chad raised his eyebrow. "Zasz? I know a Zasz."
Lucy quickly dismissed that. "Yeah I already know. Different people trust me."
"Wait you know?"
She now seemed to look slightly awkward on that. "Oh, your Liu Bei mentioned about a Zasz before that's all. Different gender."
"So yours was male?"
Now she was perplexed. "What? No. Yours is—" Then something dawned on her. "Oh...Yeah, yeah, of course. Ours is male. Because yours is female, right?"
"Yeah."
"Sorry, three hundred years can make someone a little confused now and then."
Chad smiled at her whilst, without the one of 3 noticing, Chad of 2 was looking a little worried at Lucy when she looked to him and shrugged innocently.
The game continued on for, what he felt, was several hours.
Darkmega came to visit the group. Shook hands with Chad of 3 and asked how his counterpart was doing and if he was 'getting lucky with Medi like I did.', which Chad confirmed to be correct.
Chaos, their one of course, came in and gave Chad of 2 encouragement on defeating Unicron for the 5th time before headed to help the docs with whatever they were planning to do today.
Then there was Anna, who seemed to be annoyed someone stole her custom made wooden model of 'griffon' or something before she snatched it off Yuri and stormed off. The model as Chad briefly saw it looked familiar but he couldn't place it.
The game soon ended and Chad left the small house they had played in along with the other Chad and Lucy. "So you managed to defeat Unicron. What's next for your small band of adventurers?"
Chad of 2 smiled, thinking about it. "It's the first time Yuri is the dungeon master so beyond is quite the unknown. He'll probably think of something unique unlike when Regal was doing it. Which his planned adventure for us was pretty much what I went through in real life, minus the relationship issues."
"Relationship…?"
Lucy decided to sum it up. "Dated Anna long term, that fell through, married one girl, then married me as well."
Chad of 2 frowned a little. "And that's the key parts of it."
The 3rd universe Chad looked a little surprised. "You got two wives?"
"Yeah things got...ultra complicated with the first. We were happy but, she suffered mental scarring that got worse and I became more her carer then a lover. I just...I needed someone at the time to stick by me too. I needed support. Lucy was that support. Our love blossomed again and, that was that."
"And your first wife...understood?"
Another voice answered that. "I did. I wanted him happy."
They looked over to see a mature looking Net Navi Roll. She appeared quite curvaceous in comparison to the one Chad of 3 knew of, especially around the chest. Her hair was still metallic, and she lacked the Navi crest. "I didn't want him to suffer me being a burden on him...I was pushing him away because I knew he couldn't help anymore." It was clear this was bringing up bad memories. "So, what Universe are you from?"
Chad of 3 gave her a smile and put his hand out which she shook. "I'm from Universe 3. Your name is Roll, correct?"
"Roll Oswald."
"At least you still have that name…"
That caught the other Chad's attention, whilst Roll asked on it. "Why, something happen to your Roll?"
"She got...reset. Her name is now Ruth Bullen."
"Oh wow. My birth name. Why is that? Did something happen to her?"
"Richard...he...I couldn't…He grabbed her and...well first he struck her down before I knew and while she was hurt and I failed to know what he was up to he..." Chad of 3 found it difficult to explain, especially when looking at another Roll. He felt he could've done something, figured it out sooner. And looking at this Roll didn't help that regret.
...This Roll who had stiffened a little after he said Richard's name. "You, you don't mean, the dark soul version of him right?"
"Yeah. It was him that attacked her, why-"
"Lucy why don't you take our new friend around parts of the Farplane? Show him some different spots whilst I talk to Roll?" Chad of 2 seemed to butt in and move between the other Chad and Roll whilst Lucy grabbed Chad of 3's shoulder and led him away from the village. He was so confused by the sudden change around him he simply followed along and provided no resistance, only looking back to see his 2nd universe counterpart hold Roll close, he just vaguely hear them despite Lucy trying to increase their distance as a quickened pace;
"—It's another him, not the one we know. Their universe is like ours-"
"—But he hurt their version of me too! It can't be some cruel twist of fate that another would attack-"
Lucy then showed him around to several locations, flying from one to another. Different groups of people that they watched from a distance, a few of the taller grander mountains, a neon blue forest in one corner, and even showed him the very edge of the Farplanes where the water seemed to just...run off.
Into the darkness far, far below.
Beyond the water, the bits of dry land that resided here was what Lucy called the Abyss. And below it was Oblivion.
There were blue dull rocky twisting paths leading into the abyss, but many were clouded in a dark grey thick mist. Chad looked to the colourful land he was on and the rocky path of the Abyss...the sudden shift in tone was jarring, and when he tried to step on that pathway...every fibre of his existence made him step back. A primal fear struck him hard.
Lucy explained it to him. "The Farplanes is happiness and immortality beyond death, Oblivion is hell and the end and this, this is purgatory. This is where you can feel pain again. Where you 'live' again. And if you die here and no one is around to drag you back to the Farplanes?" She looked deadly serious now. "You'll face Oblivion."
Chad looked out to the mist. "Well...What can kill you then? I can't see anything."
"They're called Meonektons. Only the Chozo around here seem to know of them. They said they're a techno-organic species that thrive only in the Abyss and were placed there by Death as a threat to those who aren't satisfied living in the Farplanes. They don't seem to eat anything, just there to take down those foolish enough to step into that place and caste them down into the darkness as their final punishment."
Chad knew what he wanted to ask next. "...Have you seen anyone-"
"Kei Yuki." Lucy answered him. "She, went after someone within the Abyss. People being reckless, wanting to risk again. Chad, Dark Rich, Blue Light and his Navi Slashman, Zhang Liao, Keira, Zoanoroid Colonel and Tyrannus Oswald." She glanced at Chad. "Chad's and Anna's son from a parallel future. I'll tell you another time." Before focusing back on the edge of the abyss. "They were the group that day. They walked off into the mist to fight the Meonektons, and one other."
"Seemed to be fine for them. Keira was mapping the paths, they were all expert fighters and Chad was with them. Confidence was high." Lucy was scanning the mist before as she continued on acknowledging Chad's silence. "But...something went wrong. Really wrong. Myself, Roll, Kei, Dr Regal, Iris and Trill were all waiting at this very edge. We heard the fighting but every time it stopped, we knew they were fine."
She looked down into the gaping maw of darkness. "Roll screamed. She saw Blue fall. I looked into the mist, trying to see the others, panic filled my heart as I soon heard Iris yell out in horror others were falling. Then...I saw her rush by me. She said she's going to drag them back before rushing off into the mist."
"...I watched her lifeless body, neck sliced open, fall." Lucy could see it. It was obvious to Chad she was visually re-living it. "Soon there was silence, then Chad returned, carrying the injured body of Dark Rich. He was trying to not cry...because he chose this idea. He made this mistake that led to no one else coming back with them."
She now turned to Chad. "Tell me...What's Kei to you?"
Chad wasn't entire sure on why that was important. "A friend? Why?"
"...I see. Well, for my Chad, she was near and dear to him...to lose her, to lose his brother and one of his own children, even if he was from another timeline. It hurt him. Then having to face Iris and explain why her husband was cast into Oblivion." She thought on that. "She's the only one he told what fully happened. He said he can't to us. Because if we knew, if Roll knew, it would be a disaster. And Dark Rich, well you know him."
Chad shook his head. "No. Not really, not my mine anyway...Besides he gives me an evil glare and seems to be on Kei's side, that's all I know."
"Oh. Well he also is hard to get information out of if he doesn't want to say. Can be stubborn."
She returned to looking out at the Abyss whilst Chad looked to her, trying to figure out a few confusing things, the Zasz business, Kei Yuki...and something that caught his eye within her hair. More precise, a barely visible gap in her hair at the side of her head.
A white nub, hardened bone? A horn? He wasn't sure, but it was a little clearer from looking at the side.
It made him recall Beyondard more...
The Diclonius project.
He didn't mean to stare as much as he was, but it got her attention as she gently placed her hand over the nub whilst looking at him. "Does yours have those?"
"Huh?"
"Horns. Does she?"
He didn't answer for a while. He had to think, to recall more of the past that until he came here, was nothing at all. He recalled his dad taking him to a lab. He recalled a deity of red and blue demanded Dr Wily abandon the project. His dad agreed. Before they knew it, in the midst of Wily cursing them and yelling about how it will lead to greater things, the deity released a divine light there, destroying many of the computers and stasis pods that contained humans young and old.
He remembered Dr Wily yelling and demanding why. The deity said about it 'not being required this time.' that 'once things fall into place, this world's science will become obsolete.'.
Lucy and many of the younger ones survived. The adults within those stasis tanks weren't so fortunate. He remembered his dad turning against the deity before that god-like being vanished. Dr Wily checked the survivors and noted that it was all over…
Chad remembered walking over to Lucy. He remembered staring at her as she woke up.
The horns were missing, there was a gap in her hair that eventually patched itself with time. She always said she could recall being able to use a power before, that she had a gift. But now it was gone.
"...She did have." He finally told Lucy of Universe 2.
She wanted to pry on it, but it was clear Chad was still getting used to everything right now and needed time. She just sat beside for a while more before suggested he head on to the little village his people are working on. Get his mind focused on setting up a place to live.
They flew back to her place. It was clear things had settled back down here. Chad of Universe 2 greeted them and soon saw Chad of 3 off along with Lucy.
Chad moved away from their village, looking back as he did. Lucy was there at the edge of it with her Chad, leaning on him with his arm around her as they watched him go.
He didn't hear what they were talking about. "Chad? When do you think he'll go back?"
"I don't know. But if the timeline doesn't want to be messed with, he'll need to. His a reason for Ruth and Zasz to even visit us…Come on Zuo Ci. The hell are you doing?"
"I take it you mean he-"
"—He's one yes Lucy. He should be on lookout duty like ours. If he is, why is Chad here?"
For Chad of Universe 3 it looked so nice looking at the couple. They were all now so close...he wondered when the others would come so then he could have that too. Build a home, learn new hobbies, live this afterlife to the full-
'Chad...please...please help me...'
That voice, in his mind. His face paled as he quickly looked around. He could sense her suddenly! She was around here! That was
"Roll! Roll where are you!?"
'Chad...I'm trapped in the Abyss...Please, I'm so scared…'
Chad's heart sank.
The Abyss.
..."No! No I can't be afraid now! Hold on Roll!" Steeling himself, he flew off towards the edge of the Farplanes.
The ones in the hospital now, as six hours had passed by, were Ruth, Hub, Medi, Blue, Elie and of course the Life Soul who was laying on the bed now, looking up at the ceiling.
She has been for a couple of hours now. Ruth realized the soul had put Chad's body in a standby state and was either thinking, or exploring within the body.
Quickman, Sabek and Diamas had left to Sabeks room. He wanted to look through what he could to see if anything could help, and Quickman volunteered to look as well, whilst Diamas tagged along on the account that if they had no choice but to contact Death, perhaps he could reach out to him easier. Having a brush with the reaper is not something simple and comes with him watching, as the Hylian explained.
Ruth was sitting beside the Life Soul, watching it. Hub was next to her, going between Chad's body and Ruth, as if not sure what to say or do right now. Just waiting. Blue was with Elie. And Medi was at the computer of the hospital watching it all as Regal was resting close by, eyes shut.
Medi was finding herself feeling a little more, uncomfortable. She wasn't entirely sure why but she knew she felt warmer, sweating a little again.
The Life Soul suddenly made Chad's body sit up, speaking through his mouth. "I have completed my search of the inner system of Chad."
Hub jumped a little at it's sudden jerky movement when sitting up, calming himself a little. "Jeez could you talk first?!" Before settling himself down. "So, what did you find?"
"All memories, copies and system controllers are completely disabled. I had attempted to use some of the energy provided by you to revive them, but it was temporary before they self deactivated. They are very distressed."
Blue looked over at the body. "Their sentient?"
Hub explained it. "All little programs that make us, us. All a part of our existence. I guess without Chad they can't remain in a functional state."
"I was also looking around for any sign of a dark soul. None was detected." The Life Soul then explained to them whilst only moving the left eye to observe around her.
Ruth got curious on hearing that. "He had a dark soul before?"
"Infection before. It has been purified, then a second infection was expunged recently. I wanted to make sure we were not being killed by a third incident."
That's when Dr Wily and Dr Light both returned, looking exhausted and ready to turn in for sleep. Thomas was rubbing his eyes a little and Albert just looked, done with today.
Medi was the first to greet them. "Welcome back. Has there been a solution found?"
The docs looked to one another as Regal woke up, noticing they were there. "In a way. The Life Soul will need to go into stasis mood while we do a complete scan on Chad though." Dr Light spoke for them.
...It clearly was not comfortable with that. "You want me to sleep? Whilst at risk of death?"
Albert walked over to the hospital computer. "You'll still get power to function of course. We won't risk losing you nor losing Chad. Just for this scan we don't need you active to interfere." The old man looked to the Life Soul through his machine monocle. "You know Chad trusts me to a degree."
"…" It looked to the others around it, before Chad's body focused on him. "Very well. I will sleep. Put me in stasis."
Albert nodded and focused on the computer bringing up an outline of Chad's body, showing a white circle close to where his heart would be, signalising where the Life Soul was. He clicked on it, inputting a few lines of code and Chad's body laid back down and closed it's eyes, as the Life Soul was confirmed to be in a 'sleep' state for a program.
Dr Light then looked to Blue, Ruth and Hub. "Listen, why don't you three head for some rest? Myself and Albert will sort Elie out tonight before we sleep. For now whilst we do the scan on Chad there's nothing else to be done."
Ruth got up from her chair, looking at Chad one more time. "...I need my friend back. Please make sure we do docs." With that she left.
Blue looked to them both before looking down at Elie, leaning over and kissing her on the forehead. "I'll come check on you in the morning girl…" Then looked to the docs once more. "Don't fuck it up like everything else." Then departed.
Hub smiled and was about to leave after Blue shut the hospital door behind him but Light quickly spoke up. "Hub if you wish to stay you can. We're about to have a small briefing on what we're doing next. If not we'll have an update meeting with the rest of the main staff in the morning to explain it."
Hub was certainly curious and stopped before the door. "...What is it?"
Dr Wily was still focused on the computer, accessing Chad's body. "Hub, lock the door."
The Hu-Navi looked straight at his grandfather who nodded in approval before he went next to the door to access it's locking mechanism and activated it, a simple password input, before he walked over to the computer to join Regal who was fully awake now just as interested, and Medi who was watching what Wily was doing, accessing any and all lines of coding that connected it to Chad…
And deleting them.
Thomas was speaking to him. "Once that's done we can get a temporary power pack and connect the body to it for now before storing it in the cyro room and linking it up to the terminal there. Like we did with Roll. That way if what she said does occur, Chad will be able to use it again with minimal defects."
Wily nodded, only looking to Thomas for a second before continuing to severe the links of the Life Soul to Chad's data.
"What's going on?" The nurse navi asked them.
Thomas decided to explain to those present whilst Wily was finishing what he was doing. "We've been in a long meeting. A deity of reasonably high position sent by their leader. She called herself Lady Luck...There are going to be changes to events that are going to occur in time. All related to the Oswald bloodline and their destiny. Chad here had, a fair bit to look forward to it seems. The higher ups of the deities were watching us and him quite closely but as you can see, it's gone wrong." Motioning over to Chad's now completely lifeless body as Wily finished disconnecting the Life Soul without it being aware, and began to download it into the Hero Base databanks.
He continued on as the download was occurring, hands now in his lab pockets. "Zuo Ci is relieved of being the active watcher. I know some of you won't know him but Albert and myself have a, known history with this deity and have had to work with closely during the foundation of the Hero Base here on the Earth X and at moments when Chad's destiny began to reveal itself. Simply put, the deities wanted this place to be his area of operation, if not here, the reserves we now have control of across other worlds. Gaia X, Mute and what remains of Zebes."
"We're getting a replacement for Zuo Ci. A deity named Castiel. Probably within the next day or two. When he arrives we'll have an integration meeting to get him up to speed with everyone here and yourselves so that he can blend in easier should he need to reveal himself at any time. Zuo Ci gathered that information himself over time. This new one hasn't got that luxury as the higher ups want the destiny of Oswald to press on."
Medi looked to Chad's body. "But...Chad is dead."
Thomas sighed deeply. "Yes. Well, we're going to get his replacement once Castiel arrives and the integration meeting is complete."
"Wait what? They can just replace him?" Hub was certainly surprised. "But his unique. You and Albert said so yourselves!"
"I know we did. We also mentioned his linked to our pasts. He'll most likely still accomplish that as Zuo Ci is relieved of what was his main duty, but is now currently trying to fix his mistake. The deities have chosen someone else who carries the blood to continue the duty of being a hero. He'll be the main focus of us from here on out. If any high risk missions or requirements come up, if approved by Castiel he must go to them. Chad is not to go if Zuo Ci accomplishes his mission. He cannot effect the destiny of the Primus Bloodline and must simply remain with us."
Dr Regal nodded in understanding. "Sounds easy enough."
"That's not fair on Chad though. He struggled for us and now he's just being left like this and when he wakes up, he'll be pretty much put to the side?" Medi argued.
Hub joined in. "And he has a strong relationship with my dark self and several others here. He also has links to the Anna Bloodline."
Albert had now turned away from the computer knowing the Life Soul was being successfully removed from Chad, looking annoyed. "We're aware of that, but we have to push for this newcomer to blend into the hole Chad is going to leave. Including those relationships. Ruth, Darkmega, Us, Yuan Shao, the newcomers like Elie and Blue...We have to push for him to fit into those positions. The deities want him and Ruth especially due to her blood. If not her that new girl Nyu, though Lady Luck warned us her heart is not so easy to sway."
Medi wasn't happy still. "This doesn't seem right. Chad spent a few years with us, his a good friend. We can't just push him to the side and give this new person all the attention."
Hub agreed with with her. "And quite a few of us trust him. To be told to suddenly work with a total unknown out of the blue..."
"It will seem odd father. It won't be easy and Chad will most likely notice as well as some others. I mean I assume they probably want him to be distracted by Richards Dark Soul." Dr Regal looked to the old men.
"Exactly. Once Zuo Ci sorts it out Chad must keep out of others matters and watch over issues with the 'corruption entity' as Lady Luck called him. So we must try and make this work. That's an order. Not from us. From the head of the Hero Base."
With that Wily silenced all three.
Thomas glanced to the three to make sure they showed they were going to comply to this matter, which Dr Regal gave an affirmative nod as did Hub, with Medi responding with "Understood. We'll do as he instructs."
"Good...Now, Medi. I'm going to get a power pack to place on Chad. Please get a trolley to transfer Chad to the cyro room and decrease overall temperature by a further 3 degrees. Just incase Zuo Ci takes too long. I can guarantee his organs will work still but his skin will start to rot as time goes on. Slowing that down will help Chad on his return. Meanwhile myself and Thomas will check on Elie one more time and if she's ready we'll do as we said to Blue and add the synthetic skin on. Hub go and grab us some black coffee. Regal head to the labs and lock it down for the night."
…
The blue hue glow of the Cyro room made it feel cold enough, but if the doctors order it, it has to be done.
Medi accessed the small black terminal on the grey wall which now had a white wire coming from it connecting to the new arrival to this place of cold and faint humming of machinery, the floor lightly covered in a faint mist of water. "There we go. A little more chilly…"
'Didn't want to stuff him into a cyro pod. Odd.'
Medi knew that was in her mind. 'Maybe they're hoping Zuo Ci will get things sorted in a reasonable amount of time.'
'If his truly a god like the rest of the deities, he probably will...Still...It feels a little odd right now.'
Medi raised her eyebrow whilst looking at the terminal, making sure Chad was getting enough energy. 'How do you mean?'
'Our feelings. Conflicting. Can't you tell? It's what's making us sweat, feel ill. More changes bit by bit. I'm watching them.'
She wasn't entirely sure of what herself was getting at until she looked at Chad and had thought about her lover Darkmega.
Her stomach churned. Her body reacted with disgust and hatred towards the very thought of that Navi. Yet another part, it felt the opposite. In the increasing pile of hate stemming from his name, she still felt...love.
As she looked at the slightly frozen glass of a nearby Cyro pod her reflection was sitting on the table in the middle of the room. Medi quickly looked over at the actual table to confirm it was just in her mind as Chad was still on the table, before looking at it through the glass again. "What?" This time she spoke aloud to it.
'You felt it when you thought about him. You felt it when he came to check on you in your room. You want to ask don't you? So ask.'
Medi sighed, looking at the door leading to this room for a moment making the sure no one was about to come in before stepping over to the table and leaning on it, focusing on the glass of the cyro pod, silent for a few minutes.
How does she begin the conversation about him?
She found comfort, a small bit, by looking at Chad. Something about him being here if only in body gave her a little boost of confidence to look to herself.
She eventually found the words as her reflection waited patiently. "...Do I still love him?"
The reflection shrugged. 'It all depends on you and how you cope with what you've done to yourself. You can't block out those feelings anymore. It's no longer within your programming.'
"Those feelings…"
Her conscience nodded, then looked around. 'It's almost the same as the Zebes base one isn't it? Same temperature, same blue colours, same feeling of cold. The dead patients always come here to this little morgue. Doctors done the right thing by avoiding calling this place that. Demoralising for some. Would be to you if it was named that and now Chad is in here. You know she came here too.'
Medi felt her back stiffen as the memories appeared in her mind.
Jasmine.
She transferred her to the cryo room. Cremation was the decision as Medi recalled that what she would've wanted.
And she remembered the funeral. Brief, a few people. Her family were unable to come due to the issues around that time and they gave the go ahead to the doctors. Never wanted to contact Medi afterwards, they told the doctors the Navi was a member of their base and not of Jasmine's family.
Roll cried, Maylu cried, Lan cried, Yai and many of the others from Earth X…
Medi just stared ahead as she heard Dr Light gave a few parting words, telling them that Jasmine will live on as Azrael takes her into his loving arms through the Lifestream to the Farplanes.
Something was hurting. Something inside her. She moved away from Chad and she got out of the cryo room. She asked Dr Light and Wily if she could be excused now Chad was sorted and they agreed. She didn't wait for them to say goodnight to her as she left the hospital heading back to her room, her feet gathering speed the longer she walked, trying to fight off this brand new sensation growing. Her internal clock told her it was 11 in the evening before she continued to try and figure out what was going on before it hit her hard.
This was the first taste of the suffering, the loss she had gone through. She felt a pain in her chest and tears forming in her eyes as she managed to get to her room, close the door and lock it before walking over to the bed and sitting on it staring at the mirror to confirm her reflection was there. She gulped as she finally could speak again, tears going down her face. "This sensation. Tell me, is this it? Is this what I've been wanting to do all this time?"
'Because you never did. You never stopped and mourned. You were programmed not to if it is a patient under your care when they die. You know who did the damage, who fired those shots and used the blade, but no hatred could come of it because again, your program restricts it.'
"But, but I must've-"
'Of course a part of you knew what he did. But you can't act on it. At least before you couldn't, instead you fell in love with him. Because he showed care for you and showed interest. Not many did because you always came onto them strongly. Then you slept with him.'
Medi felt her stomach lurch. "I never, I wish I didn't-"
'No. You did it out of genuine feelings for him. You do love him, he means a lot to you, but now with all of your readjusted emotional programming and feelings, it's clashing. I know we love him. He never did anything wrong to us directly. You saw his reaction and shame when you brought Jasmine up in the underground lake on Earth V.'
That made her snap at herself. "Why are you trying to reason this out?!"
Her reflection now folded its arms over its chest. 'Because I'm not here to make you obey these new feelings and instincts without due thought. I'm here to for you to tap into yourself, to who you are. I am who you were before. A copy of that you before this change.'
Medi felt her hands clench. That pain didn't fade in her chest. She never said goodbye to her. She never told Jasmine what she meant to her...all because of her programming, and Darkmega. Tears fell on her clothing.
"I could've saved her."
'Never lie to me. She was beyond saving before she got to you. You tried to comfort her.'
"Then what about me? What about us?! We were left to deal with it!"
'Because we were made to. We were instructed to. We weren't built to seek that comfort. We give onto others. All Medic type 2 Navi's are made like that.'
"No! I'm unique like them! Like Roll and Hub! I have been for years now! I'm not some off-the-shelf product…!"
Her reflection had changed. No longer did it's helmet have the nurse cap attachment on it's head, nor the back knotted hair. Instead it had a bob-like haircut, a small white headband, the crest symbol now on it's chest. Her puffed out unique Navi outfit replaced with a white nurse uniform, still with the purple bodysuit beneath, small white pauldrons on her shoulders, simple white glovers and small white boots.
'Hi. I'm Medic ID2006. How can I be of assistance to you today Miss Jasmine Chiba?'
Medi remembered those words now. They were the first ones she spoke to Jasmine upon being brought by her family. She placed her hands firmly on her helmet, eyes shut as the tears didn't stop before screaming out, pulling the helmet away making her hair return to it's natural state and hurling the helmet at the mirror, cracking it and causing a few fragments of it to fall off to the floor.
The memories of Jasmine were drowning her. Her hatred to her lack of reaction wasn't fading away. Her anger to Darkmega didn't burn out. Her conscience spoke again in her mind 'You can't ignore feelings anymore to focus automatically. You have to do it yourself now. Find reasoning for them and take the action you feel is best to move along with it all. Afterall, you were seeking comfort elsewhere already-'
"Shut up! SHUT UP!" Medi shouted that as loud as she could whilst grabbing the sides of her hair and head, her breath erratic as she had tried to close in on herself, head down eyes shut trying to block the world out before laying on her bed all hunched up, crying loudly.
She didn't hear her conscience anymore.
All she could hear is herself.
"You're Zerg get agitated fast when we approach them. D-do you have a reason for it?"
"We're in the middle of modifying ourselves Chandos. It takes time and I only allow a few people to enter our domain. You're sudden arrival is doing it."
Zasz was sitting in the middle of her hive. Patience being a key factor right now.
"Tell me, is the lack of further conversion of the mountain causing you irritation? Afterall the Zerg aren't known for settling for anywhere without continuous expansion until a whole world is claimed. Are you expanding into the mountain itself? Several caverns filled with your brood?"
"No Hojo. Whilst I have one structure that expands into the depths I have no intention of creating additional structures within. I have no desire to expand."
Question after question.
"So we used to be about to define a level of gender from each individual Zerg on Char yet some of this e-evolution you're brood is going through has removed that, as well as beginning to lose their more humanoid features. Why is that?"
"The Zerg after the fall of Primus for a time were more stronger, obedient and capable. The humanoid factor is from a mistake that I was aware of and am now correcting by removing it Chandos."
Poking and Prodding.
"I would like to take a sample of the Zerg hive wall. The way it seems to be trying to grow but your link to it is refusing to let it advance or rise any further fascinates me."
"You have 18 other samples from my brood Hojo."
"Then one more won't hurt."
Kei keeps reminding her 'They're just extremely curious. You have to understand that being this deep into a Zerg colony is not normal nor is getting these many chances to learn about your kind.'
"So-so the claws. The internal ones in the tip make the clicking communication. Is that actually required or do you use psychic communication? I mean it's been theorised you use the latter-"
"We use psychic communication. The claw mutation is part of the human factor. Vocal chords were not correctly added. The human genes forced onto the Zerg were not added within the evolution pit. Used to have a master for it long ago. Abathur. He was killed by Primus."
"Wait how do you have that level of knowledge?"
"Zerg can communicate far and wide. Knowledge from millions of years is easily passed on through the survivors. Even between worlds."
Then there was Roll Bullen.
She never asked questions after the first one.
She observed. She watched. She kept adding notes to her datapad. She never moved close to Zasz and just looked at a distance, staring several times.
Zasz had to limit psychic communication around her too. She could pick up on it as Zasz first found when telling her brood to only become aggressive if the scientists try to look into the secondary hive.
'Is there something important there then?'
'...You can intercept out communication.'
'We can't trust a Zerg entirely. I do not mean to intrude.'
Tails was keeping out of the way for most of this, whilst Kei often came over to Zasz to make sure she was still fine. She was genuinely worried for two reasons; one that she quite obviously felt she was a friend, at least, to the Zerg and two, if Zasz snaps she could outright slaughter them all.
Soon though the poking and prodding was coming to an end.
Hojo adjusted his glasses whilst looking at his datapad and the box of samples he had gathered. "Well I suppose this will do. We should head back and look into beginning the modifications. With these samples we'll have a much quicker learning curve of the Zerg DNA as well as our own advancements in understanding your species Zasz."
She didn't answer.
Nargil then came over towards Zasz. This scrawny looking human and his name just made her itch. "Um, you'll need to, come with us of course. We can set up a location for you to rest as we prepare and you should be to communicate with your brood from a distant range. If you feel you can't feel free to ask us to-"
"I'll be fine. The brood will remain defensive without me. I will allow only Kei access to the hive. All other intruders are to be killed on sight."
"O-oh. You don't need to go so far-"
Zasz glared which made the man flinch and take a step back. "It is my decision."
That ended any further conversation the man was thinking of as he returned to Hojo's side.
"We'll teleport to Gaia VII within ten minutes." Hojo informed his team and Zasz before walking over to Dr Bullen to talk to her.
Kei meanwhile had her own question, speaking quietly to the overmind. "You're tense as all hell with Dr Bullen and don't like Nargil much. What's wrong?"
"The latter…" Zasz looked over to the man again. "It is the name. Nothing more on that. Perhaps one day I'll explain. The former is because I know her through the mind of my father. That dark soul."
"Wait Richard knows her?"
"Because of the same reason as you. What you were directly a part of thanks to your family out here. The Super Children Project."
Kei looked dumbfounded. "What?"
"Infected scientists. They're memories passed down through us. That's how I know about you and what Dante Yuki had done. Well, Dr Bullen had a child. Ruth. She was adopted by her sister Luna Bullen and worked closely with Dr Wily. It led to him adopting Ruth when Luna died under mysterious circumstances. That child is now Roll in the Hero Base. The Net Navi. This woman was work first and anything else second. She gave her child to the project without thought and had no care for the children in it, including the source of where my father came from."
Kei just stared for a while, before slowly nodding. "Oh. Oh, um, okay. That would explain a bit at least…" She was rubbing the back of her head a little, now quite confused.
"I'm going to make sure my perimeter is safe before departing. Keep an eye on the scientists." The Zerg walked away down one of the corridors leading out of the central hive.
Tails now journeyed over, noticing Kei was mumbling to herself now and completely lost. "You okay there?"
"...I'm just confused that's all. Zasz was just telling me about Dr Bullen and, myself in effect. She said Roll has a sister."
"...Yeah?"
"Well she did. But she died at 3 years of age. And Zasz mentioned about the Super Children Project...I've only ever heard rumours of that existing. Yet Zasz knew of my adoptive father and claims he made me a part of it, which, obviously, I'm not."
Tails thought about this, folding his arms for a moment. "Sounds odd. Maybe she's mistaken you for someone else? With a father called Dante?"
"It's too much to be a mistake, with the rest of what she said...yet at the same time…" Kei trailed off, looking down the pathway Zasz went, remembering what was now feeling like a lie Zasz used about the infected scientists. "We'll have to be careful about her as well as the doctors."
Lu Bu was with the other deities in their realm.
Gathered around the game board. Moved by thought and waves of their hands. Each deity who partake were took turns, rolling dice, decided outcomes…
Right now Blind Io was telling them the new plan for the game.
"We will put Trigon in reserve. Abandon the idea of his return. If he got out now, the new replacement would not be ready to handle him. The Hero Base is not allowed to fall yet...more precise, the faction itself. As for where they are…" He waved his hand over the star filled map that moved and flowed like water, eventually zooming in towards Earth X. "I want them relocated to Gaia X off from this world. Perhaps a critical failure in the power core room would shift them. A natural disaster too. A comet. Anything anyone can think of at this time. I'm open to ideas."
Fate frowned, shaking his head. "Gaia X is not advisable. Mute would be a superior option at this time. If you recall Gaia X is suffering from strife weaved into place by Yu Yevon. It'll get them mixed in with that which will of course, disrupt the game. Mute is in a peaceful state. Perfect for what we need."
"I'm glad that little maggot thing hardly visits us. We told him to use a human form and what does he do? Look outright stupid!" Kefka added in about Gaia X.
"Very well. Mute it is. Now, Lady Luck here has already visited the Hero Base and informed them of the adjustments. Their leader has agreed to make sure the Life Soul is removed from Chad and make sure the Blade of Darkness is taken away, placed in storage until we can pass it to the replacement. The Death Soul is...a challenge."
Duo spoke up, still massive in form like that of a transformer. "Fate. You created them. Is there not a way to make a new one merged of both?"
Fate shook his head. "Granting both powers to one could ruin the game. Perhaps that...Blue Light. The one who recently joined the Hero Base. He would be a good host for the opposite power. Darkmega can keep his but alone it won't pose as much danger to our game. If those humans can extract it, It would make my job easier instead of a new Death Soul but we'll see how that plans out."
Blind Io was happy enough with things so far. "Now...onto the first opposition they will face. The three deities of Hyrule, Din, Nayru and Farore want the sleeping state of the worlds they now watch over to end. To do that Diamas must face Demise and Unicron, which can now go ahead thanks to Lady Luck here-" He motioned to her, as she made a battlechip appeared in her hand, floating just above it. It had a purple icon for it's image, shaped like that of Unicron's head. "-Has obtained a copy of Unicron's data from the Hero Base. We will deploy it on that world and let the three deities entertain what to do with him. Demise was taken to that world shortly after Diamas had used their powers to revive it and several others. Hylia is also present….both are proving to be annoying, but remain where they should be, for Hyldens."
"The planned aftermath?" Kefka asked.
"Diamas sacrifices himself to save the worlds. Demise will, hopefully die and this time Death can keep him. Our new piece will learn the ropes and prove just as heroic and useful as Chad. You can join in Kefka if you want but do not overwhelm him and do not, side with that corruptive entity should it ever appear. It is to be destroyed on sight. I've been in contact with Ingrid. She also agrees it must be destroyed when and if it is discovered. She will try and avoid direct interference with the game but cannot promise that for the guardians of the core...Gabriel." The eyes of Blind Io looked to the red and blue skinned deity.
"I have my own mission. Thanks to Chad being taken out of the game I assume Beyondard is no longer of any use."
Blind Io nodded.
"Then I will let it go into freefall. There are two Zoanoroids on that world that want to take over everyone and know of an ancient Cybeast that can do it. I'm going to let them instead of terminating one of them and thanks to the other being a Net Navi, resetting him. Once they have total control I will prophecise that in ten or so years they are destined for an encounter from the stars...we can send a few summons, disrupt their lifestream and destroy the world from within with none of them leaving that world."
Lady Luck was smiling. "After all that planning Gabriel? Destroying the one world that sees you as a god along side Azrael and Blind Io?"
"It matters not to me. I can easily find replacements to bow to my feet. Mortals are easy."
The head of the deities was then moving the board again, now showing a mostly water covered world. "Once Demise is gone, we will proceed with the path of Oswalds...Primus' return."
There was a murmur of keen interest on hearing that.
Lu Bu especially was interested as he was waiting for them to mention him. After Chen Gong mentioned Blind Io being aware about Primus he knew it had to come up sooner or later. "So you plan to revive him?"
Blind Io went silent. Something that all the deities present that noticed was worrying besides Lu Bu, who knew the answer to the question already but wanted to provoke it out of the head deity.
"...He is alive already."
"That's impossible!" Palutena quickly replied.
"Myself, Fate, Lady Luck, Chronoa and Janos were made aware of it by Zuo Ci soon after the corruptive entity had manifested itself. Primus was not killed. He was put in stasis. Something he and Unicron agreed upon. The fatal blow Zuo Ci delivered had worked, but Unicron must've scanned for the body while we thought he was asleep and revived him using the chaotic shards. His now in a deep stasis of sleep, waiting for someone of his blood to use their sword to open the path into his tomb. Once was on Cybertron...now on Templus...thanks, to Zuo Ci."
Castiel now spoke up. "Hold on he moved Primus' resting place back to the homeworld he came from? Was he aware of Primus being alive?"
"He spoke to Primus himself. Simply wanted to see the body's remains. Got more then that. Primus tried to target him but he got out and decided to move Primus' tomb to avoid Unicron getting to him and getting him out. That of course did not happen thanks to the planet eaters destruction but the old fallen destined one is still alive...so we'll use the new destined one to put him down."
He looked right at Lu Bu, all of his eyes locked on him. "That is not going to be a problem, is it?"
"...Hmph."
"Lu Bu. You must obey. I don't need you doing 'that' again. Defying us, fighting Beerus and mortals from all over, prolonging a game that should've ended much sooner. Be thankful Beerus enjoyed the conflict and granted you a pardon. And that I also gave you a pardon when you decided to make yourself a deity of several worlds before coming to rest on Earth V. You know that is not tolerable. We can spread out influence but Azrael's and mine must be present on all worlds. You did not let that occur. I will not give you another chance if you side with Primus again. Is. That. Clear?"
"...So long as the new Primus bloodline proves his might. I shall obey."
Not the answer Blind Io wanted as he smacked the board game, causing it all to turn black and no longer showing the game itself. "Are you saying you'll disobey if you feel like it?!"
"I do what I wish, when I wish. I follow those who are strong Blind Io. Like I follow you, though compared to Primus and Beerus…"
Blind Io was shaking slightly in rage, since he just got compared to a mortal, not so much about being compared to Beerus. The other deities around were not surprised at this outcome, though Lady Luck was trying to calm Blind Io down as was Fate. Reminding him that getting angry at Lu Bu is useless.
That's when another voice spoke up. Clad lightly in black armor, a feathered hat like Lu Bu with white hair and grey eyes was a young beautiful woman. Lu Bu's daughter, Lu Lingqi. "Father! I do not like us turning on Primus either but we must follow the leadership of Blind Io and his decisions!"
Lu Bu turned to her...it was clear it was enough to make him step down as he soon looked to the slowly settling Blind Io. "Very Well. But if this new blood proves worthless, I will not support him."
Blind Io calmed himself and got some composure back, soon after waving his hand over the board and making the stars return. "That's fine. Castiel will support him, and I'm sure I can send others if you wish to step back at any time."
Palutena looked relieved things weren't going to get violent. "Well, now that's settled for the moment. If Trigon is going to be placed in reserve, what of the mark to summon him? The corruptive entity holds it."
Slur answered that, leaning a little on the board. "Trigon and the others remain in the prison. There is nothing to worry about when it comes to the corruptive entity...but...I have recently felt something was amiss." She was now using her hand to move the board game, eventually stopping at a world was looked green and beautiful like Earth in some spots, whilst the rest was covered by a metropolis. "Black Doom. Trigon sensed him. It makes me wonder if the entity and him are communicating. The Hero Ministry might be at risk."
Fate nodded at the possibility. "Black Doom is only using the ministry as a front whilst reviving his army. It would be no surprise if he wanted to use Trigon. Slur can you watch him closely? If he tries to, stop him and remind him of who we are and who exactly spared his people from extinction."
She bowed. "With pleasure."
To the deities around her she felt slightly different, fainter in aura then before, but none of them could detect otherwise.
The mist of the Abyss was haunting. It was unwelcoming.
The ground felt like it could crumble away, it felt dead.
The techno-organic insects, he could hear them now and then, their wings flutter and buzzing. Warnings of what paths they watched over.
He felt at risk now. The moment he pushed himself to walk over from the farplanes it was like someone had been hugging him this whole time...and now they disappeared.
He was alone. And lost.
He hadn't heard Roll since that moment. He couldn't sense which way to go. He held the blade of darkness, not knowing how it got here, perhaps he wished it and there it was like other things Lucy said about. It mattered not, a weapon gave him a small bit of comfort.
The multiple neon colouring of the thorax's of the Meonektons became visible. Chad readied himself as two of them, the size of humans, one glowing red and one blue both dived at him from the mist.
The blade hit it's mark, slicing one in half and him avoiding the other, before he spun around and met it as it flew back towards him with it's claws ready to dig into him.
The Blade of Darkness surged through the creature before he tossed the body aside, it's blood momentarily glowing blue, seemingly staining his clothes and blade before turning black and dissolving away.
He prepared himself, hearing more and more get closer, the deaths of those two acting like a signal for the rest to move in. He held the weapon close.
With each swing one fell. Their blood washed over him for a small time. Their claws struck him, a few slashed at his arms and chest, some his back and legs. None ever getting a vital blow. He wouldn't let them.
There was five.
Ten.
Twenty.
Chad was trying to push on, trying to find a way out of the Abyss, not to the Farplanes but to who he needed to get to. He impaled another through it's head and flung it's body at another to send them both to Oblivion.
They were weak, but if there was a limit to their numbers, it wasn't showing.
Only moments of silence, giving Chad amounts to breathe, to continue his unknown journey before more showed up.
Chad was wishing he wasn't here. That this wasn't happening. But she was here. She needed him.
And he promised to keep her safe.
He had to see her again. He needed something to hold onto and she was it now. In the middle of this misery.
Another wave of the bugs had landed around him, easily surrounding him on the walkway getting ready to attack.
He let them move in. The moment any raised their claws, they would face Oblivion.
One finally managed to catch him. It's claws plunged into his back, into his spine. He felt it tear through as he fell to his knees in shock. The pain stunned him, the feeling of it moving the claw around inside him as he felt his legs surrender...before he felt it drag him towards the edge.
A moment of terror filled him as he shut his eyes...before a red glow lit up within his eyelids and the claw suddenly disappeared, leaving him feeling his arm hanging over the edge of the stone walkway, his body giving up for a moment. Then another red beam as the bugs were heard moving away from Chad and attacking something else that was ripping them apart.
Chad managed to open his eyes to look over to the source of it all.
It had a black coat with the hood up, a blade in each hand both pitch black with a faint glow near their hilts, one red one blue, orbs of somesort. A shadowy aura flowed around them but from the shape of them as he could see, they looked like his own.
The figure had no trouble with the Meonektons swatting them away with none getting even close to him. Eventually they seemed to back away when he killed enough returning to the mist to give him and Chad time to rest.
The figure made the blades simply vanish from his hands as he walked over to Chad. He placed his hand on him "Chaos control." His voice made Chad focus on him more as Chaos energy surge into him, healing his wounds whilst the figure stepped back to give him space, picking up the Blade of Darkness in the process.
He knew that voice from two people.
Chad of Universe 2.
And Nameless.
He felt his strength return as he got himself sat upright, moving away from the edge of the walkway as the figure gave him his sword. "Don't drop this again."
Chad looked to him as he moved the hood.
Their appearance was almost one and same...could it be…?
He remembered what Nameless said to him within Cybertron;
"...A long time ago, nineteen of us tried to fight him, in a place called Abyss...all of us fell. One by one they died before me. My first wife, my second wife, my best friends, my family, those who wanted to help end this nightmare once and for all, to seek proper closure. All of them fell before I gave in, before I was finally defeated."
"...Blue, Lucy, Ruth...I've seen them wearing the same outfit as me. Heh, probably he gave them those to mock me trying to hide away. To try and make a difference…"
"...Ruth and Lucy were my wives. Blue is my brother-in-law."
"I like you, am of the Primus bloodline. I lived my life many, many years ago, seeking peace beyond this. But that dark one called me back to the living. He cast me down, but Death allowed me a chance to go after him."
"Chad...of Universe 2? Is that you?"
Nameless stared at him. Silence was the answer.
Before eventually Nameless chuckled bitterly. Shaking his head and turning away whilst Chad got to his feet. "It is you isn't it? Why are you dressed like that?"
"No." Nameless now spoke. "I am not him. His first wife was called Roll. Mine accepted the name Ruth."
Chad dusted himself off noticing the damage to his clothes remained. "Then who are you? You're a Chad at least. You must be but which one?"
Nameless again fell silent. Going to deep thought by the looks of it as Chad walked up to him and soon glanced around at the mist, hearing the buzzing again.
"Shit. They're going to come back!"
"LOK, VAH KOOR!" Nameless shouted out creating a blue, vaguely visible shockwave of energy burst out of him and as it advanced outwards the mist was pushed away gently. The buzzing fading away as the mist retreated, showing off the maze of paths all around them, several leading to floating islands of rock, some merely an open space and nothing more, others quite clearly containing caves.
Chad was stunned with what just happened. "Wh..what did you just-"
"A Thu'um. A source of power we all carry but not always able to learn and tap into. When you shout out chaos control, your not only using the energy of chaos, but enhancing it with the power of the thu'um. The only gift we got from Leviathans that Azrael passed to us." Nameless said to him in a matter-of-fact tone as he started to walk off down one of the walkways, Chad following.
"Wait wait! Where are you going?"
"I'm taking you to her. I know where she is."
"Roll?!"
Nameless nodded. "Yeah. I sensed her a while back but couldn't pinpoint it until she reached out to you. Then I sensed you were in danger and came to you instead."
Chad was certainly glad he did but still wanted his question answered. "I'm grateful. Really I am. But, please tell me who you really are. You're me right? A version of me?"
"...Yeah."
"So what's with the mystery name? Why Nameless? Did you think I would freak out over another me? Heck I met my counterpart now and his pretty awesome. I didn't worry at all."
"I chose it because I don't belong anywhere."
"I...don't understand." Chad admitted.
"I'm not…" Nameless stopped walking for a moment, looking to Chad. "I don't have a Universe to call home."
"What? How is that possible?"
"In each Universe there is two Chad Oswalds. one In each of the four positive sides, one in each of the four negatives sides, and the one in the middle. Five Universes exist. I was born beyond all of that."
"Beyond...our Multiverse?"
"Yes."
Chad stared at him. He didn't know what to say. Was that even a possibility? It was a struggle to follow Death when he showed the water flow of timelines of the Universes, now here's Nameless who claims to be not even a part of that. "...Bullshit."
"I am from a Multiverse far from here. As were my friends and family. We all came here on a ship. Crash landed in Universe 5. The power we used to get here malfunctioned. Myself and Blue were the only survivors of the crash. We tried to survive but eventually, we were consumed by the harshness of the world we made it to. Darkrift it was called. We were united with the others in the Farplanes but that was when we found...him." Nameless was now clenching his fists. "The Dark One."
"Hold it hold it." Chad was trying to process this, meanwhile Nameless was walking off again. Chad soon caught up. "You're saying Richard is from another Multiverse?"
"The Dark One that has consumed him is. It has come to live within him. It was from ourselves. Our desire to return home manifested."
"H..How?"
"A Sigil Stone. Chaotic Orb. Whatever name you wish to call it. We had those in our Multiverse. I carried it to this one. When the stone was destroyed fragments of it's power fed into us, and from our united desire to go home, he appeared."
"So it's your fault it exists?"
Nameless nodded.
Chad wanted to vent about it, but recalled when Nameless mentioned his family and friends did try and stop it...and they all lost. "So, it boils down to us in this Multiverse to flush him out. Death revived you to fight him but as you said before, you lack a power to do so."
"One I still believe you have…and in that cave-" Nameless pointed to one that was at least a mile out. This particular cave's stonework appeared more of a deeper blue and purple then anything else out here. "Is where Roll is...and where it lives."
Chad really wished Nameless didn't say that. Dread and fear over what was happening to Roll, and the fact he could be facing the Dark One head on this time quickly got to him. "Roll is in there with it?!"
"I can sense them as we're getting closer."
Chad didn't wait. He ran ahead. Not another moment more. He remembered the threats the Dark One said through Richard to him in Unicron, the fact he enjoyed hurting Roll as well as the fact it's the reason Anna was sacrificed. "Nameless we can't wait! We gotta stop him then before he tortures her anymore! With the two of us-"
He looked back.
The mist was returning over the pathways behind him.
Nameless was gone.
At least to his view.
As Chad pushed on without help. Nameless was wandering back the path he and Chad came from, hands in his pockets.
Soon coming to a stop as another speedy set of footsteps were headed his way.
As he soon was face to face with Chad of Universe 2, who was panting and had clearly rushed into the Abyss, now looking utterly furious as he encountered Nameless. "...You..."
Nameless sighed at him whilst moving his hands out of his pockets, hands clenched as the shadow swords seem to appear from the pockets fully formed as he pointed one towards Chad of 2. "Your time ended long ago."
Chad arrived at the cave entrance, rushing in without thinking twice. The cavern within seemed to slope downwards, crystals of black seemed to litter the walls and ground as Chad ran on.
Within moments he reached a black lake. The cave fully opened here, black crystal stalactites covered the ceiling, dripping black liquid into the lake. The ground around it was covered in dark, pulsating tentacles, both within the ground itself, cracking up the stones and sticking out above it. The purple sand and rock that remained in this open space was what remains of the original formation of this place.
Within some of those tentacles near the lake though. Was Roll. Her legs were black, a part of her face the same as was her left arm and part of her crest and chest. They were twisted around her, firmly holding her against the ground, her hand touching the water that she couldn't pull away.
She was clearly terrified and in tears, begging to herself as he could now here. "Please, please Chad I need you. Please save me from this…"
Chad again lacked any hesitation. "HANG ON!" He yelled as he rushed over, grabbing the tentacles and pulling at them to make them let go.
"Chad!? You're here!" Her smile as if she never thought she'd see him again was all he needed to keep trying. To finally see her face to face again drove him on. The smaller ones tore off easily, but the main large ones that covered her torso, legs and the one nearest to the lake? They weren't giving away so easily.
He pulled his sword out. "Stay still alright?!"
She nodded in eagerness to be out of this nightmare as he sliced at one of bigger tentacles
It broke open...and jetted out black liquid into his face.
"ARRGH!" He stumbled back, using his arm to try and wipe it off as quick as he could. "Bastard! You're not stopping me!"
Roll's hopeful look to him soon turned to horror...as the other ones began tugging her towards the lake. "NO! NOOO! CHAD! DON'T LET HIM DRAG ME BACK IN!"
He ran at them, swinging his sword at the one gripping her arm. Again the liquid splashed into his face blinding him. He wiped it away to see that Roll was still being dragged in by her legs which were partially submerged.
"LEAVE HER ALONE!"
He slashed at one close to her legs and now a third lot of liquid shot into his eyes.
He didn't bother wiping it off. He was furious at how it seemed to know where to spray it's slightly burning liquid at him. He swung his sword furiously, feeling it strike against the flesh of them and feeling them twitch before slashing out several more times, each time he felt the sword make contact. He stepped back when he was sure that was enough, panting. "Roll! Roll you okay!?"
All he could hear was the drips of the black ooze entering the lake.
He wiped the liquid away. His vision blurry and stinging.
But it wasn't Roll anymore.
It was Anna.
And she wasn't moving.
He stumbled over and fell to his knees to get a better look.
The puddle of blood forming underneath her from the slashes on her body and across her face was all he needed to figure out what happened.
He…
He went into shock, he couldn't accept it. He refused to. Not after getting this close. "No...No no no. I can't have done this! I, I didn't do this! Not after coming so far! After coming through the Abyss!"
He grabbed her hand. "Anna? Anna! Please say something! Anything!"
He failed to noticed a single tentacle come from the lake, get around her legs and just pulled the body in, her hand simply sliding out of Chad's as all he now saw was the skid of blood that led to the lake.
His hands were shaking, his sword dropped to his side as his hands went into the blood. "No. Not like this. Not when I-"
"Killed her. Isn't that twice now?"
He wiped his eyes again, his eyesight still struggling to return to normal.
But he knew that voice. He saw the figure with twelve claws standing in middle of the lake. The one purple eye glowing through the blurriness of it all.
It walked over to the shore. Chad grabbed his sword and quickly backed away as fast as he could, trying to not acknowledge the blood on his hands as he was shaking.
The black form seem to shimmer as it got off the lake, and as both foot stepped away onto land it had transformed into Richard. "You can't help it can you? Hurting those around you is a normal thing for you. May not always be so...obviously tragic yet you still make yourself and others suffer."
"YOU KILLED ANNA!" Chad screamed at him with his face red and fierce, his breathing completely erratic and his body shaking violently.
"I fired the shot. But someone else picked the target."
"YOU TOOK HER AWAY FROM ME!"
"And now you took her away from yourself."
"I...I didn't! I, I didn't trap her, try to drag her into whatever the hell this is! This is your doing! Her death is your doing! I tried to save her...!" Something snapped in his mind. "WHERE'S ROLL!? IF THAT WAS AN ILLUSION THEN WHERE'S ROLL!?"
Richard, with his one brown eye and one purple glinting eye looked down at Chads hands. "What makes you think Anna was an illusion? The sudden change of appearance? The fact you remember you came here for her rather then someone you cherish? You've quickly dropped back to her over Anna."
Chad glanced down. A drop of blood escaped the grip he held on to his sword. "...Why...WHY!?"
"Because the more I break you. The more I feel alive. I know desires of myself. They want to see you suffer. Because of who you are. What you, Richard and Blue are. If not in your Universe. It matters not. All of you will suffer. That is why I am what I am."
Chad tried to focus, tried to escape the slow dry feeling in his hands. "No, you were born from a desire to return home by Nameless and his friends! What twisted you into this?!"
"Well...I've had countless years to think things over. To mull on things. Nameless is partially right on what I am, but I have no desire to go home. Never will until I'm satisfied here."
It was a mere three seconds. Richard dived at him. He grabbed and twisted the blade of darkness out of Chads' hands. Fists struck into Chads gut, chest and across his face as he felt himself fly back and slam into the cave wall. Debris, dust and small rocks bouncing off him before he found the hand of Richard over his neck holding him up against the wall with a vicious grin on his face. "You know what the best bit is?"
Chad was shaking, staring down into his eyes as Richard leaned closer and closer, smiling wickedly as he soon slightly shifted to move closer to Chad's left ear, and whispered something.
All strength died at that moment within Chad. His mind blanked out as the words slipped into him. Tears rained down his cheeks as his face paled on realizing something terrible.
Richard moved back, still holding him tightly but as he looked at Chad's face, his own face seem to...blacken, distort as his eyes merged into one singular purple one with blacken veins littered within, the iris a glittering violet as his hair turned into a shade of indigo, his mouth seemed to widen more and more now going ear to ear, dripping with purple and black slime as his mouth was just...a void as he spoke. His voice echo and haunting.
"Even better. I let you out to set you free from a failed destiny. I wanted us to meet here. The former was to throw the plans of others out the window and make you suffer in the long term, and the latter purely to look at how helpless you are. It's delicious to witness you like us, to see you broken before me...keep showing me that look Oswald. Show me how I've hurt you. Keep me thrilled and pleasured as I tear you down bit by bit."
Richard lowered Chad down, forcing him on his knees. "When all this ends, I won't forget. But I'll hound others the same way. I'll break any and all of you three. The creators copies need destroying, especially ones of you, the one who started it all."
"I...I don't…"
"No, you won't understand. Because here, it's not you. But you still exist. Good enough to satisfy my desires."
He threw Chad back against the wall with the mobian navi smacking his head and sliding down into his backside, staring up at Richard, his breathing uncontrollable.
"Soon you'll leave, but everything will be different. You won't be in the right position anymore. You might even become forgotten...which would be quite the victory for me. But for now-" The dark purple claws on his back seemed to grow, their sharp blade-like tips slowly moving closer and closer to Chad. "-Let's enjoy the fact souls can't truly die here. Suffering for a time, then when I know Zuo Ci is coming...You can visit Oblivion and enjoy that before going home. I do hope you remember all of this."
The claws were inched towards his face. Chad tried to move but he couldn't even create a train of thought for movement. The words Richard whispered echoed in his mind. One claw seemed to be aiming right for his eye when-
"BITCH YOU THOUGHT!"
A fist slammed right into the side of Richard's face straight away turning it back to normal. Chad was sure for that brief moment a look of surprise overcame the Dark One before he shot right into the wall close by, a cloud of dust billowing on his impact with it and several stalactites falling from the ceiling and smashing into the ground.
It didn't take him long to recover and launch himself out of that cloud though as Richard flew to his attacker, who uppercutted him straight up to the ceiling crashing into it before a bright red beam of Chaos energy slammed into him causing him to yell in pain and fury.
Chad of Universe 2 who appeared slightly battered, cut and bruised was smirking as Richard came back down and was met by Chad's foot into his stomach, sending him back into the wall he first met, creating another cloud of dust. "Long time no see asshole! Good to know you're around so I got someone to beat on proper!" Chad of 2 then glanced at Chad of 3. "Oh hey. Good to see your still alive too-whoa, you alright?"
Chad of 3 was trying to adjust to what was going on around him as Richard was seen stepping out of the settling dust and debris, looking furious. "You. Of course you would come, despite the lesser gifted power you've come to me again!"
With that Richard lunged, punching Chad across the face only to be smacked just the same way back by Chad's fist, knee'd in the guts straight after and blasted back by another Chaos energy beam right in his face.
"Nice seeing you again too." Chad of the 2nd Universe bent down close to the other Chad and picked up the Blade of Darkness. "Don't mind if I burrow this? Left it in the Farplanes. Thanks." Before focusing back on Richard, moving away of his counterpart. "You have no idea how dull it's gotten without you trying to stab me in the back, do you?"
The Dark One was already rushing at him again firing off two neon blue heated beams out of his uppermost claws that this Chad easily sidestepped to avoid and as he got close, the Dark Wolf blade seemed to appear from out of the shadows into Richard's hands as he swung it, deflected and knocked aside by the Blade Of Darkness, the red gem attached to it glinting with energy on contact with the opponents blade before Chad of 2 yelled out "CHAOS EXPLOSION!"
A burst of bright red energy erupted out of him which only made Richard stumbled back slightly. But that was clearly all this Chad was after as he then called out "SOUL UNISON MAGNET SOUL!" and shoulder rammed Richard right in the chest...as a duplicate of him, with a blue shirt instead of a red done the exact same thing to the back of the Dark One.
"CHAOS BLAST!" Both shouted as a red aura quickly gathered around them and erupted, causing Chad of 3 to squint and look away from the dust flowing past him.
The light faded and the duplicate was gone. Richard had already recovered and tried another attack, his claws reached over and were now stopped by the Blade of Darkness, the gem on it now glowing as it was connected to the claws and Chad of 2 was smirking whilst holding them at bay. "We've been through Explosion and Blast Richard. Wanna go to Nuke or call it quits?"
"You're really enjoying this aren't you? You missed me."
"Missed you?...Perhaps." With that Chad moved one hand away from his sword and formed, in just one hand, a program advance creation; the giga cannon. Charging it up as Richard pulled his claws back and now using them as well as his sword to hack and slash at Chad in almost pure, rage filled abandon with no planning to the strikes, whilst Chad was easily blocking each strike with his sword in one hand. Sparks striking off it with each attempt.
"On the one hand. Can't put into words how not thrilled I am that you're STILL kicking around after the last time-" With that Chad leaped into the air avoiding three claws at once, spinning around and making sure the cannon pointed true right at Richards head. The blast flung away the Dark One whilst Chad landed on the ground. "-But on the other hand: Oh man. the cure for boredom."
He looked to where Richard went...but he had disappeared. This didn't seem to faze him at all as he disabled the giga cannon and calls out "BLUE CRIMSON!"
The Blade of Darkness transformed in his hands into two purple greatswords, one was emitting an aura of fire, the other an aura of ice. With them in hand he was looking around the cavern. "I know you haven't bolted on me just yet. Come on out and let's get to the bit where you stress out over the fact you can't beat me as always."
There was no answer.
The 3rd Universe Chad began to gather his thoughts now, his breathing calming ever so slightly. "You. Hey. Why are you…?"
"Here?" The older him responded with. "Call 'seeing you bolt off in a hurry' a hunch that you were gonna go somewhere you shouldn't. Sensing you in the Abyss confirmed it and meeting someone else confirmed you were gonna be in trouble. Though I never would've guessed all those years Roll claimed she could still see him would turn out to be right…You hear me asshole?!" He looked around again. "Did you think this was me? Did his appearance make you miss the old days where you always lost?"
The liquid within the lake shifted, humanoid figured began to raise out of it, walking on the thickened water substance to the shore and began to charge at Chad.
As they did, as they met the two blades, dissected and spread across the ground, they were taking the shape of people.
At first it was humanoid Zerg.
Then there were Galactic Federation troopers.
Chad of 2 had the Blade of Darkness return to normal, tossing it aside across the cavern and was using a combination of Chaos energy and battlechips to destroy the black beings that continued to attack in numbers whilst Chad of 3 watched as he got to his feet.
Blue skinned humans with white hair and black tattoos.
Humans in black power armor with a golden 'E' logo on their chests.
Net Navis.
Vampires.
Mobians.
The fact was each thing that was killed, black blood gushed out of them. Blood that soaked the ground for a brief time before it faded along with their bodies disappearing.
"Fakes aren't gonna cut it Richard! We've been through this song and dance!"
But as the last one fell, launching out of the lake, Dark Wolf in front and ready to strike was Richard, flying straight at 2nd Universe Chad who seemed distracted looking for the Blade of Darkness. As he spotted it-
A flash of green light, and Richard landed stabbing his sword into the ground causing cracks in the earth as Chad was gone from where the Dark Wolf hit.
Before another flash of green light and Chad of 2 had now backhanded Richard from behind, making him snarl and turn only to be met by the Blade of Darkness going through his stomach.
"Chaos Control Richard; it's a classic go to. Now let's see how you feel with MILLION SUNS!"
The Blade transformed inside Richard. Illuminated and pure white, it emitted a holy aura as Richard screamed out in absolute agony, grabbing the sword's blade and trying to pull himself away off it.
Chad wouldn't let him, he pushed forward making Richard take steps back, further and further until they found the cavern wall, effectively trapping Richard from behind. "Oh no no no. You're not getting off. This is for the years and years of hounding you did. I'm going to pour every ounce of my energy into this." With that a tinted yellow green aura flared up around him. "I'm going to make sure it obliterates you, and if there's a few bits left? I'll throw them into Oblivion, and this time Death needs to do his job right!"
The other Chad watched closely. A part of him wanted this to be the weakness he sought. That it was holy energy that could take down the nightmare that haunts him and those of his Universe.
That hope died soon enough the moment the screams of pain turned to chuckling.
Richard was no longer trying to pull the blade out. In the actual fact he pulled himself further down it to the hilt, his black blood spraying on the ground as he did, leaving a slightly annoyed Chad of Universe 2 staring right at him.
"If you honestly thought holy was gonna strike me down wouldn't you using the Life Soul done it centuries ago?" The purple glint return to his eye. "I carry darkness power, but I'm not a manifest of it. I'm something else-"
"Beast out! Final Beast!"
With that Chad of 2 transformed into his beast out form, the white minimalistic armor that was a combination of the Cybeasts of Beyondard Gregar and Falzar. He pushed the sword causing it's tip to become trapped in the wall before leaping back, both hands outwards Richard. "LIFE SOUL ACTIVATE!" Causing his aura to turn a slight golden white. "Now stay dead this time! LIFE LIGHT BEAM!"
He fired off two large white and purple fused beams, both completely consuming Richard, one element the 3rd Universe Chad knew thanks to of course having a Life Soul. But there was something else, a powerful addition that he didn't recognize.
Whatever it was though, if not it then the sheer power of the attack done the job.
The cavern wall where Richard was had been hit and blasted away. The twin beams could be seen fading out within the Abyss as they flew far into the distance.
Richard was gone.
As was the Blade of Darkness.
Chad of Universe 2 was panting, but clearly relieved. "Well so much for being more then Darkness. I just hope Oblivion keeps him this time…" He looked to his counterpart. "Don't worry about your sword. I've lost my sword before in the Abyss. It returned when I wished for it in the Farplanes. Guess once it hits Oblivion it's wiped out?" He shrugged a little. "If your wondering about this form it's from home. Maybe you'll learn it someday."
An echo of laughter came through the cave. Both knew who it was right away...as the lake began to move again, humanoid figures started to rise from it.
Kei Yuki.
Blue Light.
Slashman, a close replica of Hub besides having an 'X' logo for his crest yellow lines on the side of his navi clothing, a dark blue helmet with light blue in the middle gloves and boots that were yellow.
Zhang Liao.
Keira.
The Net Navi Colonel, but instead of his standard crest he carried the crest symbol for the Cybeast Gregar.
A lad who had medium brown hair, clad in red metal armor, a bandanna across his head with deep blue eyes. Chad of 2 knew him as Tyrannus Oswald.
Chaos, Chad's father.
The woman with long brown hair, the teal eyes and long blue dress...here, Chad of 3 recognized her as Aurora, his mom, as she looked almost spot on the same as Chad's from Universe 2.
And then there was Anna.
They all stepped off the lake. Shuffling and appearing to be in pain as they moved in on both Chads.
As Chad of the 2nd Universe was having none of it. "You always have to play dirty don't you, even with these fakes! Well I don't care!" He was readying his claws. I'll strike all of them down if it means the end of you!"
He lunged at the closest. Kei Yuki.
He pulled her apart like she was a wet paper bag. Her blood and guts flushed out of her across the ground and him as he moved onto the next. Slashman, who had only just gotten a Hi-cannon ready.
His head landed close to Chad of 3, blood speckled with fragments of data flowing out of the severed neck.
Chad could only stare at his Universe 2 self as he continued the bloodbath.
All he could see in his counterpart's eyes as he moved between those he was killing, was pure anger. That's all he showed. There was no regret, no second thought on their pained cries as he took them down.
How many times has he battled Richard?
How many times has he come face to face with trickery like this?
But as the bodies did not vanish like the people of before, the blood never fading away as it washed Chad of Universe 2...
Chad of 3rd had to think to himself. 'Was this all truly a trick or were they...?'
"He's learnt to ignore those thoughts."
Black tendrils covered his mouth to stop him screaming and twisted around his body. The voice haunting voice of Richard spoke from behind him.
"Watch him kill Chaos. Watch him kill Anna. There is nothing stopping him."
The claws tore Chaos open as he failed to land a blow, followed by a blast of chaos energy tearing through the back of him before he fell. Chad of 2 then turned to Anna, the last one standing.
Chad of 3 wanted to scream out. To make him stop.
Stop plunging his hand into her. Stop dissecting her in half. Stop with crushing her skull in with his taloned foot.
It was only after she was dealt with did Chad of Universe 2 notice what was going on with his counterpart. His anger slipped, as surprise took him. "...What the hell are you..."
Richard was there...but his face was what Chad of 2 saw. The tendrils were coming from where his claws once were, his chest and stomach open, showing jagged teeth. His sharp claw-like hands grabbing the shoulders of Chad from Universe 3.
"I am not your Richard."
With that, he threw Chad of 3 out of the opening that the 2nd Universe Chad had made previously.
For the one from Universe 3 that was now falling, everything slowed down.
He saw his counterpart try to react. But the tendrils lashed at him with lightning speed, twisting around his arms.
He could hear Richard's evil laughter.
He could feel the wind rush underneath him.
The last thing he saw though, were the corpses.
The mangled body of Anna.
Before the cave and the island it resided on went further and further away up above him, darkness quickly surrounding.
The whisper that Richard had said to him echoed in his mind;
"Roll, was an illusion."
1. To get more about Chad of Universe 2 look at Star Bearers U2 prologue. Both chapters. They expand on his history and who he is.
2. Yuri is from Command and Conquer Red Alert 2.
3. Blue Light and Slashman are characters from Blue The Hedgehog.
4. Beast Out, Cybeasts and Zoanoroids are all from the Megaman Battle Network series, the Zoanoroids from the anime.