Actually remembering to post at a decent time this week!
Chapter 7 - Talking with Yobmok
Sixer was shaken awake the next morning. He grumbled a little, but when the movement persisted, he opened an eye to see who was trying to wake him.
Kida pulled back. "It is time. Are you prepared?"
Sixer grunted as he pushed himself up from the pile of cushions he had been sleeping in. It took him a moment to remember what it was Kida was referring to.
Right. Talking to the power source of the city.
"As ready as I can be," Sixer replied carefully. "Is there anything that I should do?"
"No. Simply come as you are, and Yobmok will answer. As you are connected to Maria, you should not need a crystal, but we have one prepared in case you require it. You will not need to wear it afterwards – it is simply for this one event."
Kida must have seen Sixer's shoulders stiffen, because her last sentence was spoken quickly.
He relaxed after a moment and nodded. "Where is this to be done?"
"Our throne room is directly beneath Yobmok. That will be more than suitable, I should think."
Someone stirred on a nearby pile of cushions, and Maria sat up, yawning and stretching her arms above her head. "Ah, that was a good sleep." She blinked when she saw Kida and Sixer looking over at her. "…good morning?"
"Good morning," Kida parroted back. "Are you ready to talk to Yobmok?"
Maria blinked again. Then her gaze focused. "As ready as I'll ever be. Let's do this."
Kida nodded. "Come. We will meet Milo and Sweet."
"Sweet?" Sixer looked at Maria before looking back at Kida. Maria was just as surprised as he was. "We – are you sure he should be here for this?"
"Sweet is a doctor," Kida replied. "And he wants to help. Milo agreed." She gave them both a look that dared argument.
Maria rose to her feet and accepted the challenge. "He isn't going to know anything about how souls work."
"No, but perhaps he will see something that we will not," Kida replied. "Let him at least see what you are dealing with. He is immensely curious."
Maria hesitated and looked over at Sixer. "This…isn't something that should get out to very many people right now. I know Sweet can keep a secret, but…"
"If he can keep a secret, he can keep this secret," Kida said. "Now come." She turned and walked quickly out of the room while Sixer rose to his feet.
"Is it…okay, that he's going to be here for this?" Sixer asked.
Maria sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Not…really? I wasn't expecting him to be nearby when I got here – or any of the expedition crew other than Milo, actually. But if Kida wants him around, then who am I to argue with the queen of Atlantis?" She motioned for Sixer to follow her out of their guest room, then stepped out the door Kida had disappeared through.
Sixer followed Maria out of the circular chamber that had been piled high with pillows and blankets, then down the corridors and out into the throne room where they had met Milo and Kida the day before. The king and queen of Atlantis were already there, as well as Sweet, who looked a little confused, but a lot more curious.
"So, what's going on?" Sweet asked. "Milo and Kida said you two needed to talk to that big ol' crystal about something, but they haven't said what. How big of a problem is it that you have to go straight to her?"
"Pretty big," Maria replied. "Like, dangerous if this knowledge ever got out of this room sort of big."
Sixer came up behind Maria and stood behind her, watching Sweet with a cautious expression. Sweet caught his look.
"This has something to do with him, doesn't it?" Sweet motioned to Sixer.
"Pretty much everything." Maria glanced at Sixer with a worried expression, then looked over at Milo and Kida. "Well, we might as well get this started. If Sweet's going to learn about what's going on, he might as well see what it is we're dealing with."
"Dealing with?" Sweet frowned. "What do you mean?"
"All your questions will be answered in a bit. Let's just get in contact with Yobmok first." Maria sat down on one of the cushions in front of the lounging throne Kida and Milo had and looked between the other four.
Sixer took this as a signal and sat down to Maria's right, tails curling around him. Sweet sat next to him.
"So, what did Maria help you with already?" Sweet asked. "If she's been able to help without needing to call for backup."
Sixer's ears flicked at the question. It took him a moment to decide on an answer. "I…lost my dimension to a demonic being with god-like abilities. Maria helped my family and I get the chance to end him not too long ago."
Sweet's eyes widened as Milo and Kida sat down. "Wow. Here I was thinking you were a runaway lab experiment or something, but –" He looked at Maria. "This sounds nothing like the stuff you were talking about last night, kid. How did you go from spending time with superheroes to taking out demons?"
"A lot of world jumping," Maria replied. "And gaining enemies along the way because they tried to do something to a bunch of dimensions but didn't see reason when I stopped them." She frowned. "And living long enough to be as old as some Atlanteans, but that's more because of my mechanical body and my shard than anything else."
"…I am seeing some gray at your temples." Sweet leaned forward a little.
"Because I asked for it." Maria glanced up, as though looking at the gray streaks that were in her hair. "I didn't want people to look at me like I was an inexperienced little kid. Which I am certainly not."
Sweet chuckled good-naturedly, but the sound was a little uneasy.
"Are we ready to communicate with Yobmok?" Kida looked around at the group.
Maria, Milo, and Sweet nodded, but Sixer hesitated for a moment before doing the same. Maria was going to be with him. If Yobmok did anything that might be questionable, then he had someone who would be able to keep her at bay.
Maria held her right hand out to Sixer as Milo took her other one. She smiled in a way that he guessed was supposed to be encouraging.
He hesitated for a moment, then accepted her hand and squeezed it tightly.
"I've got your back in there," Maria told him. "Promise."
Sixer nodded in response. He didn't doubt that she did. She had made it clear over the last year that she was more than willing to protect him.
The only difference here was they weren't talking to a minion of Cipher's.
"Look up," Kida said. "Yobmok is ready."
As soon as Kida said that, the world gained a blue tint to it – no, they were in a blue spotlight. Something the crystal was capable of generating?
Sixer saw Maria look up, and he followed her gaze.
The crystal that powered the city and kept its people alive was sending the beam down towards them. The sphere was pulsing with energy, and Sixer could see that more clearly now that he was inside the spotlight.
"It's just like going into the mindscape," Maria said to Sixer. "But it's gonna feel funny."
"I've felt strange things before." Sixer swallowed and held Maria's hand a little more tightly. "But I am glad to know that you will be doing this with me this time."
Maria squeezed his hand in return. "Just breathe for the moment. We'll be there soon." She closed her eyes, breathed in, and her body stilled.
Sixer watched as the rest did the same, then did as Maria requested. He closed his eyes, breathed in, and forced himself to relax.
Immediately, he felt something gently cradle something in his chest, and suddenly he was drifting.
The weightless feeling that hit him was not what Sixer had been expecting. Immediately, he started to reach out, trying to find something he could stand on.
"Sixer, easy!"
Sixer's eyes snapped open as his body stilled at Maria's voice. "What – where –"
They were floating in the middle of an endless blue expanse that constantly shifted in a way that looked like waves rolling over each other. Milo, Sweet, and Kida were in the same circle they were in in the throne room.
"I guess the easiest way to describe it would be Yobmok's mindscape?" Maria spoke up from Sixer's left. She was still holding onto his hand, giving him a point to ground himself. "It's like being inside one of the shards, if that makes any sense."
Sixer looked over at Maria, ears flicking. He didn't hear anything other than Kida muttering something under her breath in Atlantean, but she wasn't his focus right now.
Maria was wearing her usual, normal human attire – orange jacket, red shirt, jeans, red boots – but there was a glowing blue circle in her chest. There were also five thin, blue lines that went from that core and down her right arm to—
Oh.
"Is that…the connection between you?" Milo pointed towards Maria's and Sixer's hands.
"You didn't have a visible scar before." Sweet floated closer to Sixer, frowning.
Sixer pulled away as Sweet got close, pulling his hand away from Maria's and revealing more of where the strings went – through the tips of her fingers of her right hand, through Sixer's neck, wrists, and ankles, and then through his body to a large, glowing blue slash across his chest.
If the slash wasn't enough of an indication that something was wrong, the flickering flames that danced across Sixer's neck, wrists, and ankles was a definite sign.
Sweet pulled back when Sixer did. Sweet looked between the slash across Sixer's chest and Sixer's face. "What happened?"
"A nightmare, putting it lightly," Maria replied. She looked down at her right hand and moved her fingers, watching the strings with a sad look.
Sixer felt a gentle tug on his soul as the strings pulled against him. It wasn't a hard enough pull that he needed to do something, but it was a pull all the same. "The…being, that destroyed my dimension, did this to me and my family. He…he turned us into puppets by pulling our willpower out of our souls, and turning it into something else." He moved his left wrist, pulling on the blue string attached to it. "It's something Maria hasn't been able to reverse."
"I had suspected as much."
Sixer stiffened at the woman's voice. It wasn't familiar, and it seemed to come from everywhere at once.
And then there was a woman in the midst of them, wearing ornamental robes that were slightly more ornate than Kida's.
"Matim!" Kida embraced the woman happily, which she returned.
Ma – ah. Sixer assumed that this was Kida's mother. Or…an avatar of her that Yobmok was using to communicate with them?
Was this power source someone who had given her life for the sake of her people?
The woman said a few words to Kida, then released her from her embrace before looking around at each of them in turn. "It is good to see all of you alive and well – especially you, little World Jumper. You have been out of my sight for some time."
Maria shrugged. "I blame the Dark Arms for that."
"Indeed. But you have matured, so I have not been too worried over your health. Your friend, however, concerns me greatly."
Suddenly, the woman – Yobmok – was in front of Sixer. A hand reached out to the glowing wound on his chest, and he pulled back before her fingers could touch.
He didn't think it wise that the wound be touched.
"That's the reason we're here," Maria spoke up. "Sixer…he lost his dimension to a demon named Bill Cipher. That demon took him and his family and…changed them, on top of doing this." She held up her right hand again.
Sixer swallowed when he again saw where the strings went. He wasn't sure what he thought of the fact that he was – quite truly – attached to her soul.
"Cipher turned Sixer and his family into puppets by messing with them," Maria said. "Thanks to an intervention, we were able to kill that demon, but…this is still a problem. You interact with your subjects on the level of souls, Yobmok. Your crystal captured my soul so that Dr. Light could turn me into the android I am. Is there anything you might be able to do that could get these strings off me and tied back into Sixer's soul? Because these are pieces of him, too."
Sweet was next to Sixer now, lifting up the string from his right wrist to give it a closer look. "This has got Faustian bargain written all over it."
Sixer winced as the memories came in – one other person had mentioned that before, when making a deal with Cipher. A part of him wondered what had happened to the man, but it was more than likely that he'd died when that dimension collapsed.
"You didn't." Sweet gave Sixer a pointed look.
"H-he said he was a muse when I met him at first," Sixer admitted. "I was six years out of college at the time."
Milo muttered what sounded like an Atlantean curse.
"B-but this did not come from that time." Sixer pulled his wrist away, sliding the string off Sweet's hand in the process. "This came much later, after I had found out what he was."
"Sixer tried to stop Cipher from breaking through into his dimension and causing the end of the world," Maria spoke up. "When that failed—"
"Cipher thought we were enough of a nuisance that he wanted to…make use of it," Sixer finished. "And now you see what Maria is…trying to solve for myself and my family. If there is anything that can be done—"
Yobmok put a hand against Sixer's chest and the wound in his soul, cutting him off for a moment when he felt a pulse of something slide through him. He shuddered instinctively and pulled back again, but he wasn't pursued.
"This was caused by a great power, and it has caused you great pain." Yobmok looked saddened. "This is not something I can fix."
Sixer lowered his gaze from her face. He had suspected that would be the case, even with the chance that she might have been able to solve this.
"I am sorry, but I have never seen a soul in this state before. This should not have been possible, and yet…" Yobmok lowered her hand. "The best that can be done is if you remain with him, Maria. The fewer people who know what has been done, the better you can protect him."
Sixer had been expecting an answer like this. He wasn't surprised to hear it.
"I had wondered," Maria admitted. "But I had hoped that you might be able to do something."
"What I would recommend, you have already done in keeping this information secret. I might recommend giving him a crystal, so that he may feel your presence, but you are not of a proper size to be able to do that yet. Regardless, your presence will always be near him now because of your connection, and that will keep his soul in stasis."
What?
"Stasis," Maria repeated. "Meaning…what?"
"Meaning his soul will recover from the damage taken, but while he is near you, he will not worsen spiritually. So long as he and others like him are near you for long periods of time, they will not be harmed by such things. We protect those who need it, you see."
Yobmok smiled at Maria, whose eyebrows rose at those words.
So then…that meant if Sixer's family stayed near her as well, they would receive the same sort of protection that Sixer currently had. As nice as that thought was, Sixer wasn't sure if he liked the thought of them becoming worse.
He wasn't sure if he would like to know what that meant.
Sweet shook his head. "Okay, I'm a bit lost. So, his soul is connected to yours." He pointed at Maria. "And you're trying to find a way to fix that? Why not just pull him off you and let his soul snap back into shape? Or is there something else going on here?"
Sixer paled at the suggestion.
"I'm not going to disconnect from Sixer because when I pulled him away from Cipher, there was a moment where he started to die from organ failure because his body had lost its will to live," Maria replied. "He has to rely on his connection with me in order to stay alive. His willpower isn't going to 'snap back into shape' just because I pull it off me."
Sweet's eyes widened. "So this is a bigger problem than what you've told us about." He looked at Maria. "An' this demon guy didn't give any hints?"
"He was going to do it to me before Sixer came to my rescue," Maria replied. She paused, raising a hand to her chest, and released a shaky breath. "All he does is reach in, find your soul, and tear off what he wants. The only reason he couldn't with me is because he had one of the Dark Arms do it, and its arm got crystalized when it tried." She dropped her hand. "If…if Sixer had come even a moment later than he had, I think…he might have gotten me."
Sixer's ears pulled back. If that had happened, then he would have been back under Cipher's control and it would be even harder for anyone to rescue him.
Thankfully, that hadn't happened.
Still, Sixer swallowed. "So then, what now? If this dimension doesn't have a solution, then—"
"Then we'll go home and let everyone else know before going to the next one," Maria replied. "This wasn't my only option, Sixer, it was just my first." She looked at him with a small smile, but it didn't reach her eyes. "We'll find a solution. It's just…gonna take a while."
"Have faith," Yobmok said gently. "I trust the little crystal will do what is needed for you."
Time Break
They spent another night there, exchanging stories. In this way, Sixer was able to hear about some of the other worlds Maria had traveled to before meeting him.
He'd known she was well-traveled, but this? Superheroes from comic books he barely remembered Crescent reading almost religiously, mechanical beings from other planets, the planet she had let behind in peace when she had come to Gravity Falls—
He felt like he was only getting the tip of the iceberg.
It left him wondering just how many dimensions they were going to end up traveling to, but it was all right.
So long as Maria exhausted every option she had and either succeeded or failed in finding the solution they searched for, he was fine with being there as she needed him.
He'd had the last year to get used to her. And the position he was in currently was far, far preferred to Cipher.
They talked through a good deal of the night, and slept into the mid-morning. By the time Sixer awoke, Maria was already up and ready to return.
"I wish I could've had a look around this world to see what Atlantis had changed about Earth's history, but we came here for one reason, not two." Maria smiled up at Sixer as they stood on top of the palace steps. "Ready to go?"
"Ready when you are," Sixer replied.
Maria nodded, then snapped her fingers and summoned the portal. "I wonder what the time difference is going to be for only two days here."
"Do you think it's going to be drastic?" Sixer followed Maria into the portal, frowning.
"No. It's usually a couple days to a week at most, from what I remember."
"Ah."
They stepped through the other side of the portal and out into the clearing around the giant Mystery Shack. The sky was a soft golden color.
"Sunset?" Maria looked up at the sky in surprise. "Huh. I guess time must be opposite there or someth—"
Maria cut herself off abruptly and stiffened. Sixer frowned.
"What is it?"
"I'm…getting a call from a number I don't recognize. Hang on." Maria put a hand to her left ear. "Hello?"
Sixer hovered nearby as figures started to step out onto the porch – members of the Pines clan, he noticed. At least one of the Stans was holding a Pitt cola can in one hand.
"Yes, I'm Flare-Up. What's your reason for calling me?"
It took Sixer a moment to remember where he had heard that name. Hadn't Maria mentioned it last night when she spoke of the mechanical aliens?
"…oh."
Maria's voice went quiet suddenly
Sixer looked at Maria, frowning with a worried expression.
"I'm going to need a little time to prepare," Maria said. Her voice was going hollow, and Sixer didn't like the sound of it. "I'll be bringing others with me, as well – two, maybe three. Two of the three I'm thinking of knew her. They'll need oxygen when—" She sighed quietly. "That's…that's good. Okay. I'll likely be there within a day or so. Thanks for…alerting me to this."
"What's going on?" Crescent, Sixer's green-eyed twin, approached.
Maria looked saddened as she lowered her hand from her ear. "A…a close friend of mine just passed. Wildfire. I…" She brushed at her eyes with one hand. "I'm…I've gotta talk to Vash and Knives. See if both of them want to come to her funeral. You've got the option to if you feel like it, Sixer, but…since you didn't know her, you don't have to."
Sixer opened his mouth to respond, but Maria was already headed towards the house.
"Just…think about it," Maria called back. "We've got until tomorrow morning."
And thus, we end one arc (yes it was short), and get us into the next bit. Surprise! An OC that I paired up with Maria and once considered Maria's original form has passed on without Maria's knowledge or presence! Next couple of chapters are gonna be a bit melancholy in that respect.
If I have any Wildfire fans among my readers who remember my foray into Transformers: Prime fanfiction, sorry to say she's gone and not coming back. Much like Maria's brothers, Matthew and Collin, and her cousin Joshua.
Whelp, see ya next week!