Disclaimer: All Disney works are the property of The Walt Disney Company. All other characters and settings are the property of their respective legal owners.
Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2020-07-18. This is the first of two chapters posted today.
Disney/Kingdom Hearts Loops, Chapter Forty-Five
45.1 (Skaz Wolfman): [Kingdom Hearts]
A Recursive Replica
Roxas Awakened almost as early as he possibly could. It was only his seventh day with the Organization. He was sitting in his throne in the Round Room, watching the small hooded figure of Xion approach the center. Roxas Pinged, and felt a few answers. He glanced across the room at Axel, who was glancing at him. They locked eyes, Roxas subtly popped an eyebrow, and Axel gave the slightest smirk and dip of his head in acknowledgement. Roxas lifted the index and middle fingers of his right hand just a little bit off of his armrest, and made scissor-snip motions with them, silently asking Axel 'snip this in the bud?'
Axel shrugged and winked. 'I'm game if you are, bud.'
Roxas, forgoing subtlety, gave Axel a full, firm nod in reply. 'You bet I'm game. Let's rock, brother.'
Sometimes, when they were both Awake this early in the game, Roxas and Axel would spend the coming year just palling around, more often than not just nabbing Xion and leaving the Organization entirely to do whatever until it was time to meet Naminé in Twilight Town to wake up Sora. If Naminé was Awake, she could use her powers to stabilize the flow of memories between Sora, Roxas, and Xion, allowing the three of them to coexist just fine. If Naminé wasn't Awake... well, Roxas and Axel always made sure Xion understood what needed to happen, and why, and because she was a Sora, she always made the selfless choice. All that was left to do was to entrust the future to Sora.
Sora always did the selfless thing... and right now, that was exactly why Roxas felt like blowing off steam by trashing the Organization here and now. If Axel hadn't been Awake, he thought he might have taken all of them on solo. But he was glad Axel was Awake; fighting him always hurt, and fighting alongside him was always more fun than fighting alone.
The Organization was, to a man (and Larxene), unanimously bewildered by the sudden explosion of motion from the Eighth and Thirteenth of their number. "VIVA LA REVOLUTION!" Axel howled as he materialized his chakrams, gunning straight for Xemnas.
Xaldin and Lexaeus both jumped up in Axel's way at the same time, but Roxas flash-stepped between them and blasted them both away with a roar of "AEROGA!"
Axel's chakrams clashed with Xemnas's ethereal blades. Two Sorcerer Nobodies appeared on either side of Axel, and translucent pink cubes buffeted him backward.
"Axel! What are you doing?!" yelled Saïx as he stood up in his throne.
"It's showtime, Isa! Are you a man or are you a Nobody?" Axel replied.
"Treasonous wretches!" howled Xaldin as he leaped into the air, cyclones and spears whirling around him. Roxas dove in like an arrow, swatting the spears aside with Oblivion and Oathkeeper before smacking Xaldin down into the floor.
Xigbar stood up in his throne and fired a volley at Axel, who materialized his Keyblade and cut through the Sorcerers, kicking off of one as it faded back into nothingness to avoid Xigbar's fire.
Then, they all heard a scream. A girl's scream loud enough to shake the Round Room and raw enough to make Axel and Roxas choke up, and every other Nobody in the room felt a phantom tremor in the empty space where their heart should have been. As her enraged scream echoed, Xion launched herself into the air, Kingdom Key in hand, straight at Xemnas.
The Superior's eyes widened as he jumped up to his feet, crossing his ethereal blades to block Xion's thrust. As their weapons clashed, there was a blinding flash of light, and a thunderous 'CRACK!' as Xemnas's throne spilt jaggedly in half down the middle.
The glare from the flash faded, and gasps echoed around the room, eyes widening as they all beheld the clash's result. Xemnas was slumped in his throne, using an ethereal blade in his right hand to hold Xion's Keyblade back from his throat. His entire left arm was just gone, along with a fair bit of his left side, thorny streams of Nothingness bleeding out from his body. With a strained roar he shoved her Keyblade aside, and fired a blue beam of energy from his hand. Xion blocked the beam with her Keyblade, but it still shoved her back almost all the way across the room, until she managed to step out of its path.
Xion stood there, in midair, steam rising off her coat. She yanked back her hood, and everyone, even Saïx, saw her face. Her hard, blue eyes flashing with outrage. With quick, aggressive motions, she unzipped her Coat and tore it off, flinging it aside. This left her in her boots, pants, and a black sleeveless shirt. She tightly gripped her Keyblade in both hands, and aimed it at Xemnas.
"I don't know how you came back, or how you brought me here... but I'm glad, Xemnas," Xion said coldly. "I'm going to enjoy making you pay for what you did. You, and Xehanort, and the others... you're the reason Sora disappeared! I will never forgive you for that!" she roared before running at Xemnas again.
Xigbar teleported into her path and fired a dual stream of bolts at her; Axel and Roxas leapt at him, but Xaldin and Vexen respectively intercepted them. It didn't matter though, because Xion deflected all of his shots as she ran. Then she flipped into the air and aimed her Keyblade at him, releasing a spray of ice shards with a cry of "Blizzard!"
Xigbar teleported a few feet backward, only to get smacked in the face by Xion's Strike Raid. Xion flickered in front of him, catching her Keyblade and slashing him with it. He staggered back, and teleported away before Xion could run him through. Then Xemnas flew at her, grabbing her by the throat and crashing through a wall.
"XION!" yelled Roxas, who started flying after them. Marluxia appeared next to him, hooking him with his scythe and flinging him at someone's throne.
"Roxas!" yelled Axel.
"I'm fine!" Roxas called back. "I can handle everyone here, just make sure Xion is okay!"
Larxene actually started laughing out loud at that, but Axel just nodded and took off, gushing fire from his hands to propel himself through the hole Xemnas had made. Saïx leaped after him.
"All eyes on me, Nobodies!" Roxas called out as he pushed off from the throne he had smashed into, landing in the middle of the Room. "Final Form, DRIVE!"
Light exploded out of Roxas, and when the glare faded he was floating inches above the ground, his Coat shining silver, Oathkeeper and Oblivion crossed and floating behind him. "I'm in a hurry," he said, "So if you could all attack me at the same time, that'd actually be convenient."
Axel and Saïx were running full-tilt through the halls of the castle. Everything started shaking, making both men stagger against the walls. "Wow! Roxas is really riled up, today," Axel said with a laugh.
"What in blazes is going on, Axel?" Saïx demanded, again.
"Roxas and I are in a time loop that's repeated sooooooo many times," said Axel, "We're both billions of years old, mentally. Not even joking, man. The Keyblade Kid, Sora, is thousands of times older than that. We call the moment of remembering all the loops we've had 'Waking Up', and Roxas and I both just Woke Up a few minutes ago. And Roxas has some emotional baggage he needed to work off, so he decided we were going to flip the script and slap the Organization silly... earlier than we usually do, that is."
"That's insane!" Saïx exclaimed.
"Yeah, man, it really is. But it's also the unmitigated truth, so get it memorized," said Axel, jabbing his finger into the side of Saïx's head. "Now come on!" he shouted as he took off again.
They emerged into an open space, where they found Xion being slapped around by a huge Twilight Thorn. Xemnas hovered in the air, sneering down at her, his arm half-mended.
"Aw, hell no!" Axel snarled. Flames swirled around his hands as he materialized his Keyblade, Flame Liberator, and leaped into the air while Saïx gawked at him. "HEY SUPERIOR! Hold still so I can tender my resignation!" Axel roared as he rocketed at him.
A squad of Sorcerers, Dragoons, and Snipers all materialized in Axel's way, but he slashed and burned through them all without slowing down. Unfortunately, they successfully held his attention long enough for the Twilight Thorn to sucker punch him out of the air.
"LEA!" Saïx screamed, shades of worry coloring his normal monotone. Without thinking, he jumped at the Twilight Thorn with Lunatic raised overhead. The Thorn swung a massive fist at him with unnatural speed. Saïx felt time slow as he realized that he wouldn't be able to avoid the blow.
Then Xion grabbed him by the hood and yanked him back, both of them spinning through the air as the Thorn's fist zoomed past. They came to a stop in midair, and Saïx glanced down in disbelief to find that they were standing on a shimmering, barely visible translucent hexagon of... light, maybe?
"Go for its legs, okay, Sai... Isa?" she said.
"You're... bleeding," he said. Indeed, blood was running freely down the side of Xion's face, and her left eye was swollen shut. 'How can a Nobody, much less a Replica, bleed? Wait, how does she know my true name?!'
"Sweet of you to worry, but I'll be fine," she replied, mistaking his confusion for concern. "Go for its legs," she repeated, "I'll distract it. The barrier panel will linger a second after I leave." Then, without another word, she sprang into action. She leaped high, to the left, shooting a ball of lightning from the end of her Keyblade. A second later, as promised, the surface under Saïx's feet ceased being, and he plummeted to the ground.
The Thorn swung and swatted and flailed at her, but Xion jumped all around, bouncing off of her split-second light panels to outmaneuver the hulking Nobody. Then, Xion came to a stop and stood still. The Thorn shrieked, like metal scraping and twisting, and brought both of its fists up to smash her from both sides. Xion wanted until the last second to yell "Reflega!" A translucent bubble barrier materialized around her, and the Thorn's fists bounced off of it as the barrier shattered and exploded outward. Shockwaves rippled up the Thorn's arms, and it gave hollow, metallic howl of pain.
At the same time, Saïx hacked at the Thorn's legs with his claymore, bringing it down to its knees. Without missing a beat, Xion charged, skipping off of flashes of light like a stone across water. She thrust her Kingdom Key into the Twilight Thorn's chest, and twisted. The colossal Nobody shuddered, and then pillars of light started erupting from inside its body, until finally it exploded into a sunburst of light and streams of Nothingness.
Meanwhile, Axel had emerged from a pile of rubble and thrown himself at Xemnas again. Xemnas, having fully healed, materialized his ethereal blades and met Axel's charge in midair. But then the Thorn exploded, distracting both Xemnas and Axel, who slammed into each other. Axel deftly slipped behind Xemnas and kicked off from him, aiming his Keyblade and blasting him with "FIRAGA!"
Xemnas almost slammed into the ground at the same time Axel landed on his feet, but at the last second, just inches above the ground, the Organization's Superior seemingly became weightless. He drifted upward, rotating onto his back and then inclining until he was vertically aligned. He folded his arms and narrowed his eyes. "No. VIII, this mad display of senseless rebellion–"
"OH JUST CAN IT, would you?!" Axel interrupted. "I've heard my fill of your monologues. Xion, you ready?"
"Ready!" Xion yelled back as she stabbed her Keyblade into the ground. A pillar of light exploded out of the ground, right under Xemnas. It split around an invisible, oblong barrier around him, but it still sent him flying into the air. "HRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Xion screamed, the ground trembling as another, bigger, even brighter pillar of light pulsed up around the first one. Xemnas's eyes widened as his barrier cracked like glass when the second wave of searing light impacted it. He thrust both of his hand down, the barrier regenerating and hardening, becoming visible.
"Isa!" Axel shouted. He dismissed his Keyblade and summoned his chakrams, flinging them both into the air, one much higher than the other.
Without any further prompting, Saïx leaped high into the air, kicking off of one chakram, and then the other, bringing him directly over Xemnas. With a two-handed overhead swing, Saïx smashed Lunatic into Xemnas's back. At the same time, Xion tore her Keyblade out of the ground. Her pillar of light didn't fade away instantly, though, and Saïx pushed Xemnas down through it. Just before Xemnas slammed into the ground, Saïx planted his feet on the Superior's back and jumped off.
"Axel," said Xion, shifting her Keyblade into a position he instantly recognized. "Buy me a minute."
"Right. Isa! Get clear!" Axel yelled out, summoning his Keyblade. It glowed hotly as he swept it back and forth through the air, sending motes of flame into the air. Axel threw one hand up high, and the fire motes expanded into great, burning stones. Saïx very, very quickly backpedaled until he was further away from Xemnas than Axel and Xion were.
Xemnas jumped up to his feet with a roar and an explosion of magical force, and Axel swung his hand down like an axe, yelling "METEOR!"
Two dozen fiery, molten rocks came down and slammed into Xemnas, one after another. He threw his hands up and created a barrier before being obscured by explosions.
Without waiting for the smoke to clear, Axel ran forward with Keyblade in hand. Saïx ran up alongside him. "Starting to feel like old times... Lea," he said, the corner of his mouth twitching.
Xemnas burst out of the smoke, ethereal blades blazing, and Axel and Saïx both swung at him. He blocked, and snarled, "Begone, you nuisances. All-Vanity!"
"Crap!" gasped Axel as he jumped back. Saïx backpedaled as well, but he was a hair too slow and was thrown back by the spherical shell of energy that flared out from Xemnas. Two powerful blue beams erupted from his hands, slamming into Saïx and Axel and blasting them back into walls.
Xion's eyes widened, and with an angry scream she bolted forward, the teeth of her Keyblade glowing with power. Xemnas, astutely guessing that Axel and his inexplicable Keyblade were a bigger threat than Saïx, pulled his beam off of the latter and swept it toward Xion. She picked up speed and jumped, vaulting over the beam, and continued running across her light panels in the air. So Xemnas started pulling the beam upward.
Axel, who was using Flame Liberator to block the beam but was still pinned against a wall by the force, Formchanged his Keyblade into chakrams. He levitated one in front of his hand, making it spin rapidly to deflect Xemnas's beam, and threw the other one toward Xion. The chakram intercepted the beam where it would have hit Xion, and with a final burst of speed she seemed to disappear from sight. The glow on the teeth of her Keyblade became a long straight line, angled down toward Xemnas, that cut through the air, as did a shout of "ZANTETSUKEN!"
But even the great armor-breaking technique was harmlessly deflected by Xemnas's barrier. Xion hit the ground behind Xemnas and skidded to a stop. She panicked, seeing his barrier undamaged, and started thinking quickly. Her eyes widened with realization as a wild idea suddenly sprang upon her. She grit her teeth, and charged at Xemnas from behind.
Xion was a Replica. She had grown into her own person, of course, but unlike all of her friends she had started her life as a copy of someone else. This meant that her nature was less static, more mutable, than most people. In her first life, she unconsciously used this power to emulate Roxas and eventually Sora's power in battle. Then, when she had to fight Roxas and force him to... do what needed to be done, she had pulled out all the stops and gotten creative with her powers. More recently, during her brief stint as a Seeker of Darkness, she had learned to expand her power to emulate others, besides Sora and Roxas, the two she was connected to. She had replicated Saïx's Lunacy powers at the Keyblade Graveyard, and she had even summoned copies of his claymore, Lunatic. Xemnas's barrier was virtually impenetrable... but his lasers passed out through them, and they, as well as the barrier, were made of the same energy he conjured his ethereal blades from.
Xion hadn't tried to Replicate Xemnas's powers the last time she had fought him, alongside Sora and Roxas; whether out of uncertainty that she could, or out of disgust against her former "Superior," she had never really reflected upon. But she tried to, now. She had to try, because she wasn't going to let Xemnas hurt Axel. She thought of Xemnas, remembered every time she had witnessed a display of his power, concentrated all of her mental energy on capturing a complete picture of his power, and all of her willpower on making that power her own. The Replica Kingdom Key disappeared from her hands, replaced by a perfect copy of Xemnas's Interdiction: a pair of plain red energy beams suspended in blade form and rooted to the palms of her hands.
With a triumphant howl, halfway between battle fury and savage glee, Xion slashed through Xemnas's protective bubble. Feeling his barrier collapse, Xemnas's eyes widened in shock, and he whirled around to face Xion... as she thrust both of her Replicated weapons into his chest.
The beams streaming from Xemnas's hands abruptly fizzled out, and he dropped to his knees. "This... this cannot... how... just a puppet..." he murmured as he began to break down and dissolve.
"I... have never been just a puppet. And I'll never let anyone treat me like one, ever again," Xion muttered as she dismissed her Keyblade.
"Well said, Xion," said Axel, clapping as he ambled up to her. Then, without warning, he swept her up off of her feet into a tight hug, spinning around. "Hot damn it is good to have you onboard!" he exclaimed. "Uh, just to be sure," Axel quickly added, setting a bemused and slightly dizzy Xion on her feet. "You remember... everything, right? The Keyblade Graveyard? Hanging out with everyone on Destiny Islands? You remember meeting Aqua, Terra, and Ventus, right?"
"Remember... of course I remember all of that! How could anyone forget all that?" Xion asked incredulously.
Rather than answer, Axel broke out the biggest and wildest smile Xion had ever seen and picked her up again, jumping up and down and whooping with joy. Saïx could only stare at this emotional display in absolute bewilderment.
Then the whole Castle started quaking, throwing Axel and Xion to the ground. Saïx narrowly managed to stay upright by jamming Lunatic into the ground and leaning against it.
"Oh yeah, almost forgot. It was Xemnas's will that was holding this Castle together," said Axel when the tremors... settled down enough for him and Xion to stand up, at least.
There was a thundering crash as a beam of light erupted from a distant hub of the castle, where Axel recalled the Round Room was located. The light arced and slammed down in front of them. The light floated, and there floated a silver-coated Roxas. For a moment, at least, before another, softer light enveloped him and his silver coat became black again, and his Keyblades disappeared.
Roxas had another black coat slung over his shoulder, which he held out for Xion. Seeing her expression, he gave her a small smile and said "I know, but we've got to use a corridor of darkness to get out of here before the Castle falls into the Realm of Nothingness. Me an' Axel'd probably be fine without our Coats, but you're..."
Abruptly, Roxas choked up. He lunged forward and pulled Xion into a crushing hug, which she returned without thinking about it, perplexed by his and Axel's reactions. "You're finally... it's so great to have you back, Xion," he said, a half-laugh of blind joy bursting from him.
"Uh... where did I... how long was I 'gone'?" Xion asked.
Roxas opened his mouth, but the Castle rocked again. He and Xion slammed into each other, keeping each other from falling down but butting heads in the process. Saïx's hands slipped off of Lunatic and he faceplanted this time, and Axel fell to his knees but summoned his Keyblade in time to prop himself up so he fell no further. "Hey, let's get out of here and have the mushy reunion somewhere safe!" Axel shouted. He raised a hand, and a swirly, shadowy portal opened in front of him. "Hoods up, everyone get a move on!" Axel ordered as he ran through. Saïx followed him after a moment of hesitation. Roxas grabbed Xion's hand, and they ran through as well.
Naturally, they emerged atop the Clocktower in Twilight Town. They took a moment to appreciate having solid, immobile ground under their feet again. Then Axel and Roxas both glommed onto Xion, again.
"Seriously, what happened?!" Xion asked, enjoying the affection but at a loss as to why her friends were acting like they hadn't seen her for years.
Roxas and Axel both felt a Ping. They Pinged back, as did a few others. Altogether, the same number of Pings as before. A moment later, another Ping, with Roxas, Axel, and whoever else answering again. Nine Pings, altogether, which could mean all nine–well, ten now–of the Loopers unique to their Branch were Awake. But it was impossible to be certain considering all the Disney and Final Fantasy Loopers that could be Awake.
"Oh!" said Roxas, remembering what this meant. He Unpocketed his Gummiphone, which was ringing. Axel followed his lead, Unpocketing his own Gummiphone, which was also ringing. The screen on Axel's phone showed Naminé, while Roxas's showed Riku.
"Well, that's all of us, then. Except for Terra, Aqua, and Ven," said Riku, "Meet up on the Island?"
"Sure thing," agreed Roxas, "And you're not going to believe the news we've got! See you guys soon."
"But first," Axel spoke up, "There's something we need to do."
"One step ahead of you," said Roxas with a grin, three bars of ice cream appearing in his hand. He tossed one underhand to Axel, and handed another one to Xion.
"And man, do we have a story to tell you, kid," said Axel as he unwrapped his ice cream and sat down.
45.2 (Boohoooo!): [Star vs. the Forces of Evil] / [Legend of Zelda]
Marco groaned as he Awoke (in both senses) and stretched, looking at his bed.
"Man, straw beds are really not comfortable." He mused, getting up. He looked in a mirror. He was pretty much the same as usual, except with a green outfit.
"Huh. Nice hat." He nodded, checking his Loop memories.
"Hey, Li- Oh wait, you're being Replaced this Loop. What's your name, kid?" Navi flew In.
"Marco Diaz. Do we have to save Star? I know for certain she can handle herself." Marco asked, having finished checking his Loop memories to see Star had been Captured by Evil forces.
"Eh, she hasn't done anything yet, so we probably should." Navi Explained.
"Hmmmm... That's unlike her." Marco frowned, concerned for his girlfriend.
"Don't worry about it, Marco. I'm sure she has her reasons." Navi assured.
"Yeah, probably. Off we go, huh?" Marco shrugged. With that, the duo were off, Marco riding Epona.
"... This is weird." 'Epona' stated in Ludo's voice. Marco yelped and almost fell.
"LUDO?! why haven't you said anything the past few miles?!" Marco complained.
"I dunno." The Kappa turned Horse Admitted. Marco face palmed and groaned.
Meanwhile, at the Lair of EVILLLLLLLL!
Janna gave a Snicker as she watched a horror movie.
"Aw, this is the funniest part!" Janna stated while shaking an Octorok. Said scene made the Mook faint in terror but Janna laugh hysterically.
"Ma'am, shouldn't we be going after the Hero?" A Moblin asked.
"Hmmm... yeah, send who you want." Janna nodded. The Moblin saluted and grabbed dozens of Mooks before leaving.
"Hey, Janna Banana, can I get some popcorn?" Star asked from a cage.
"Sure bud." Janna nodded, handing her some.
"Thanks!"
"You're welcome, prisoner."
"I could leave at any time Ordonia, Don't push it."
"... Right, sorry."
45.3 (Boohoooo!): [Star vs. the Forces of Evil] / [A Hat in Time]
"FOOOOOOOLLLLL! You dare intrude upon my domain?! State your business!" The Snatcher demanded.
"You buy souls, right? I'm here to sell mine." Janna smirked.
"... Wait, Really?" Snatcher blinked.
"Yep!"
"No strings attached? No trickery? No bargain?"
"Nope."
"... Well hot dog! Sign here!"
Janna pulled out a skull pen and did so.
"So, what do I get?" Janna smirked, rubbing her hands together with a creepy grin.
"Forced servitude." Snatcher smirked back.
"... That's it? Working for a demon is cool and all, but It's not much compared to everyone else I sold my soul to." Janna pouted.
"... Wait, what?" Snatcher blinked.
"Yeah, There was Mephisto, Dorammu, Hunson Abadeer, M. Bison, Grim, Rick Sanchez, Dr. Victor von Frankenstein... Hey, where ya going?"
With each person listed by Janna, the Snatcher had backed up, just straight up booking it before she could stop him.
"... Lame. I wonder if those zombie singers Ludo mentioned are in this Loop... and if any of them are single..." Janna shrugged as she walked off.
Meanwhile, Hat Kid patted a Ranting Snatcher.
45.4 (Boohoooo!): [Star vs. the Forces of Evil] / [Legend of Zelda]
"How are you so good at this?" Janna grouched as Star beat her at Go Fish again. Star simply Chuckled.
"JANNADORFFFFFFFFFF!" Two voices screeched.
"Please no..." Janna sighed. The Two Moblin guards were sent flying as the doors to the throne room fling open, revealing Twinarova!
"JANNADORFFFFFFFFFF! What are you doing?!" They glared.
"Nothing!" Janna sighed, Before getting whacked with a staff.
"Exactly! We didn't train you to be one of those evil overlords who sit on their thrones doing nothing until the end!" Koume complained.
"Why can't you be more like your brother?" Kotake added with another whack.
"Ow! Look, we all evil differently!" Janna whined.
"Well you evil lamely! Go to your room! You're grounded AND We're giving this Operation to your brother!" They hurrumphed with another whack.
"Ugh! Fine! We'll see who's better when your precious Ganondorf dies again!" Janna grumbled as she stormed off. She passed an UnAwake Ganondorf on the way.
"This is your greatest screw up yet, sister!"
"Go suck an egg, bro."
Ganondorf entered with an evil Chuckle... after putting a kick me sign on Janna's back.
Meanwhile, Marco was fighting off dozens of Mooks.
"This is ridiculous!" He complained.
"STRIP THE FLESH FROM HIS BONES!" a Skeletos cackled evilly.
"HOW ABOUT NO!" Marco shouted, simply hopping on Ludo, who ran off.
"This isn't good!" Ludo whined.
"No duh!" Navi snarked as they continued to be chased.
So not really a good time for anyone so far...
45.5 (wildrook): [Kingdom Hearts] / [Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind]
Sora groaned. He had heard of the events of what happened in the third game... and why Kairi was worried earlier.
He, Donald, and Goofy put up a better fight against Vanitas unlike last time, where he was paralyzed with fear and Ventus was reacting to him. He still is, but only to inform him of counterattacks.
'Fade!' Ven yelled in his mind, Vanitas thrusting his own Keyblade against Sora, who was rearing back. 'Now, strike!' Doing so, Vanitas was surprised.
And to Sora's credit... Vanitas looked impressed.
"Huh," he said. "I can't tell if he's taking control of you or your skills have increased. No wonder Xehanort tried to mark you as a vessel."
"Yeah, well," Sora replied, "I've already got roommates in my heart, so there's no vacancies left."
Roxas, from within, gave out a smirk. 'At least he doesn't charge rent,' he said to Ven.
Donald and Goofy were helping as best as they could... even better due to Donald using a wider variety of spells. Goofy, on the other hand, threw his shield towards Vanitas and had disarmed him. Both of them knew it was only a temporary measure.
And while they were gaining the upper hand... something had happened that caused all sides to lose balance as ten seconds had felt like they were stolen.
That was the opening Vanitas needed as he struck them aside.
"Now," Vanitas said, "Ven... let's become one once more..."
"Psychologically," a newcomer's voice said, "and physically, Sora... you had the upper hand until the time stealing."
Vanitas got distracted at that moment as he felt something invisible punch him out.
"WHAT THE..." Vanitas yelled before he heard a zipper open from behind him... as he felt himself falling forever, velocity increasing.
Helping Donald and Goofy up was a man with a bowl haircut, while Sora's helped up by a blond man.
"Thanks, Giorno," Sora replied, before noticing Vanitas. "Is Diavolo on the loose?"
"Unfortunately," the black-haired man replied. "Had time not been stolen, you probably would have won."
"WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE," Vanitas yelled, Donald and Goofy just looking up and down as he fell through several portals, "YOU TWO ARE GOING TO BE THE FIRST VICTIMS OF THE KEYBLADE WAR!"
Giorno shook his head. "Tell your Boss this," he said. "If he ends up coming to Italy, he'll end up in the wrong neighborhood. Bruno!"
Bruno nodded as a portal opened towards them, Vanitas coming at full speed.
"GOLD EXPERIENCE REQUIEM!" Giorno yelled.
"STICKY FINGERS!" Bruno yelled.
And that's when the punches began. Vanitas felt pain like he never has before, physically speaking. Whatever Gold Experience Requiem was, it was a mix of both the light that Giorno protected and the darkness that was his origin, and adding Sticky Fingers's blows to the dark half of Ventus, it meant he was going to think twice about confronting these guys.
"MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA!" Giorno yelled, repeating onward.
"ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI ARI!" Bruno yelled, his Stand matching the punches.
And when the portal opened to somewhere outside Italy...
"Arivaderci," was their final word before Vanitas was launched toward said portal... before it closed.
Donald and Goofy stared at each other.
"So," Donald said, remembering Scrooge's enemies being Mafia... or rather, the variants... "how much do we owe you for that?"
"It's on the house considering you managed to help save one of our own," Bruno replied, smirking. "And tell your Uncle that he doesn't have to worry about the nephews or your kids. We're planning on ending the drug trade."
"All we needed to hear," Goofy replied. "Although... I take it that was a Stand ability?"
"Or two," Sora replied. "Ven's memories tend to bleed in... but I think he and Terra were trying to stop your Dad."
Giorno nodded. "Jotaro and Koichi told me about that," he said. "I don't know how powerful this True X-Blade is, but if he shows up here, he will never reach reality."
Sora and the others could tell that his words weren't just empty phrases. They held a huge weight. Granted, they knew about how powerful it can be, but Giorno... no... Gold Experience Requiem... vs Xehanort and the True X-Blade... that was something he'd like to see.
45.6 (Skaz Wolfman): [Kingdom Hearts]
Dr. Naminé
On a grassy hill somewhere outside Radiant Garden, Kairi was laying on her back and watching the clouds. The sky was bright and blue, the clouds light and fluffy looking. Nothing like the heavy, laden clouds in her mind.
The whole thing kept replaying in her mind. Like it was nothing, Xehanort had taken her away, used her to hurt Sora, and just like always the beautiful dope didn't think twice (or even once, most likely) before sacrificing himself to save her. 'Different dance floor, but the same tired old steps' she thought darkly.
Soft footsteps rustled the grass towards her, and Kairi glanced over. It was Naminé, drawing pad tucked under her arm and holding down a wide-brimmed sunhat on her head. She gently stepped over Kairi, then turned around and sat down with her back against the wind. She opened her drawing pad, pulled a pencil from behind her ear, and started sketching.
Kairi said a perfunctory "Afternoon, Namy," and went back to cloudgazing.
Naminé said nothing back, fully absorbed with her drawing, and silence reigned save for the wind tickling the grass and shaking hands with the trees.
After a few minutes, Naminé spoke up gently, "Could you take off the sunglasses, please? I need to see your eyes."
Kairi suspected she had timed her request; the sun had just hidden behind the biggest, closest to gray cloud in the sky, and the light had dimmed considerably. Kairi wordlessly obliged, removing her sunglasses and tucking them into a pocket before folding her arms under her head again.
Just as the sun was starting to peek out again, Naminé said "Okay, you can shade your eyes again, Kai. Now to just touch up the fine details." She trailed off into near-inaudible muttering while Kairi put her sunglasses back on.
A few more minutes later, as Kairi felt herself begin to doze, Naminé gently prodded her arm. "Finished. Wanna see?"
Kairi shrugged and sat up, pulling the sunglasses down again. "Sure."
Naminé handed her the pad, and Kairi couldn't hold in the shocked gasp. Her blood ran cold and her fingers felt numb, and she almost dropped the drawing pad. Seeming to have anticipated this, Naminé caught the pad and held it up for her. In spite of herself, Kairi couldn't tear her eyes away from the drawing.
She had expected a sketch of herself lying in the grass, but it was just her face; well, a bust drawing of her, to be more accurate. In the drawing, her eyes were just short of spilling over with tears, and her face was screwed up in a tortured expression of pain and anger. But the keystone detail was that her eyes were downcast, her face slightly tilted down, and her shoulders drawn up and visibly tense. The effect was obvious to her. The Kairi in the drawing was struggling under a tremendous mental burden.
"Na–Naminé, w-why?" she stammered.
"New technique I've been working on. Drawing how people look on the inside, rather than the outside. You may not appear like this, Kairi, but I know this is how you feel. Ever since the expansion, you've been a bit withdrawn. It's subtle, not everyone has noticed, and I don't think the others who have realize how serious it is... but I know you, Kairi. As well as anyone possibly can. The smallest changes in your behavior tell me as much as full-tilt meltdown rant. So, what's eating you, my Other?" Naminé asked.
Kairi sighed and handed the drawing pad back. "It's just... nothing has changed. A gazillion and two years ago, Sora had to sacrifice himself to save me. I've been looking forward to this expansion for so long, because I knew in my heart that things would be different. This time, I'd fight side by side with Sora and Riku. But nothing changed. Not really. Just like before, I was in trouble and without any hesitation Sora did the bravest, dumbest thing he could to save me."
Kairi jumped up to her feet and started pacing back and forth. "So what was the point?! I trained with Axel to become a Keyblade wielder strong enough to fight alongside my friends. In the loops, that training took eons. As I am, right now, Awake, I can beat Xehanort and his whole True Organization with one hand tied behind my back. But in Baseline I'm still the gosh-danged damsel in distress, so what in the heck was the flapping point of it all?!"
"Please don't hold back on my account. Feel free to use coarse language if that's how you feel," said Naminé.
"I know I should be focusing on how far I've come, as a Looper," Kairi continued, genuflecting wildly, "But Baseline is more real than the Loops, you know? It's the way Yggdrasil remembers things should be. So apparently, no matter what I do, that weakness–being Sora's weakness–is supposed to be a part of who I am. Forever. Nothing I do as a Looper can change that."
"You know Sora doesn't see you that way," said Naminé. "He's never thought of you as his weakness. He loves you, and his love for you is his greatest source of strength. But of course, this isn't about how Sora feels about you. This is about how you feel about you."
"Right! This expansion has completely tanked my personal pride. Fully robbed me of every sense of accomplishment I've built up since I started looping. My self-confidence is at an all-time low. And I know how much Sora adores me but that just makes it worse, somehow. I feel like I'm the lamest possible girlfriend he could have, and the fact that he doesn't see that... I mean, of course he doesn't feel that way about me. He's Sora. And that's the kind of thing I love about him. But like you said, my deal doesn't really have as much to do with Sora as it does with me. And I have no idea what to do with this. No matter what I do, no matter what kind of crazy training or awesome power-up I get in the loops, Baseline will always be there, taunting me."
Kairi flopped down onto the grass, burying her face in her arms. "And right after the not-looping me and him finally shared a Paopu, too," she muttered. Then she gave a muffled scream.
Once again, except for the wind it was quiet between them for a time. Then Naminé spoke up, "You're wrong. Between then and now, something did change. Remember, you fought back against the Organization at the Castle That Never Was. That's not nothing, you know. So Baseline You didn't exactly not grow at all. You just got blindsided by Master Xehanort. So did everyone else. As I recall, Terranort alone caught everyone flatfooted. The bad guys would have won... if you hadn't kept Sora anchored to the world, so that he could come back and give us a second chance. And thanks to your connection to Sora, I got suspended in the Final World, and from there I was able to make my trick play with Terra's Lingering Will. You're disappointed that you didn't make a bigger splash as a Keyblade wielder, and you have every right to feel that way, but you're overlooking the good that you did do. We would have lost everything, if it weren't for you, Kairi. That's a fact, as black and white as ink on paper."
Kairi rolled over, onto her back. She had a thoughtful look on her face. "Hmm. You're not wrong. Still, right now our Baseline ends with Sora in a really ambiguous situation because of me. Where is he? Did he get stranded on some strange world? In the Realm of Nothingness? Is he dead? We're not sure and I can't help but be worried."
"And it's only natural for us to be worried for Sora," said Naminé. "He means a lot to all of us. Especially to... to us," she said with a faint blush. "But... and this might sound bad but please understand that I don't mean it that way... Sora would have done what he did for almost anyone. So you can't blame yourself for whatever it is. And because of the bond you two share, you have to know that nothing will stop Sora from finding his way back to you, or even vice-versa. You two did share the Paopu, after all. Your destinies are bond together eternally, now." Naminé giggled, "You two are practically married."
Kairi's face burned beet-red. "Namy! Pull your punches, please!"
"Am I right or am I right?" Naminé asked impishly. "Janus assured us that the last expansion wasn't our last expansion. So, yes, this one ended on a bit of a sour note, but there are more to look forward to."
Kairi huffed, and then smacked both of her cheeks twice. "You're right, I need to focus on the positives. Remember what I've gained instead of dwelling on what I've lost. And nothing is ever really lost in the loops, anyways."
There was a sound of tearing paper, and Naminé held the drawing out to Kairi. With a wicked grin, Kairi accepted the paper, crumpled it up into the smallest, tightest ball she could, and chucked it into the air as hard as she could throw.
In a burst of luminous petals, Destiny's Embrace materialized in her hand, and she aimed it skyward. Closing one eye and sticking her tongue out a bit, she took aim. Then...
"FIRAGA!"
She annihilated the offensive drawing with a massive fireball.
Naminé smiled and gave her a standing ovation, and Kairi gave her a sweeping bow.
"Well, this is the lightest I've felt in several loops," Kairi remarked. She then slapped a closed fist into open palm. "This calls for Uncle Scrooge's sea-salt ice cream. My treat."
Kairi and Naminé started towards Radiant Garden. "Y'know, you're pretty good at hearing people out, Naminé. You ever consider being one of those therapist Loopers, like Twilight and Weiss?" Kairi asked as they walked.
"Hmm." Naminé put a finger to her bottom lip and looked up. "I don't know about that. Like I said, I know you as well as anyone possibly could."
"Yeah, but you're also good at cheering up Roxas and Riku, and you've been a huge help with Xion since she started Looping."
"... huh. You've got a point there, Kai," Naminé admitted, "I'll have to think about that. Goodness knows the Looper community could always use more therapists."
45.7 (Evilhumour): [Gravity Falls] / [Little Mermaid]
Dipper knew right off the bat that it was going to be an interesting loop seeing as his sister had been replaced by someone with red hair while still having the same wide expression of joy.
"Oh my gosh, look at all of these!" the girl taking Mabel's place said as she pressed her face to the window, staring at the passing signs and trees. "It is so cool." she said as a Ping came out.
"Mabel, are you feeling Loopy?" Dipper asked cautiously as he sent out a Ping himself.
"Yeah, but I'm glad I'm able Anchor myself," the girl said, turning around to hold out her hand to him. "And it's Ariel, by the way."
"Dipper," he said, taking her hand with her giggling as he realized she already knew his name and his introduction was kinda pointless. "So which Ariel are you?"
"Oh, I'm usually a princess under the sea," she said, still smiling at him.
"Oh you're that Ariel," he said leaning back in his seat, shifting the bags on his back.
"How many Ariels do you know, Dipper?" she asked him, sitting back down next to him.
"Well I'm," he began to stammer only for her to giggle and push him playfully.
"I'm joking with you," she said in a way that was exactly like his twin sister. "So when do you think we will get to Olympus Falls as this is your Branch?"
"Olympus Falls?" Dipper said, sitting upright with as his memories started to come in as the bus began to slow down. "So it is a variant based Loop then and we're off to see our Grunkle?" Dipper sat back in his seat, tapping his chin as he wonder if it would be Hades or...
With a smoke bomb, a figure in Grunkle's Stan clothes appeared before them. "Hey there, you must Dipper and Ariel," the man with a big white beard said. "It's me, your great uncle Hades!"
Zeus.
Welp, Dipper figured that must mean Hephaestus was Soos or something.
This should be interesting at the very least.
45.8 (Shimmer712): [Cinderella]
Cinderella hurried down the stairs. When she had gone to the Ball this loop, Charming hadn't been there, much to her disappointment. However, in the days since, she had found him as one of the guards that patrolled the city.
He had today off so they had planned to meet for lunch and maybe go for a walk afterwards. But her stepmother had locked her up so she had to hurry or she might be late.
It wasn't until she stepped into view of the foyer that she remembered why she had been locked up.
It was that day.
Despite her avoiding this loop's Prince, a glass slipper had been left at the ball. Cinderella was sure it wouldn't fit her as she had both of hers up in her room. But she didn't want to jinx it.
Plastering a smile on her face, she made her way down the stairs. "My apologies for rushing off, stepmother, but I'm afraid I'm running a bit behind." She bobbed into a polite curtsy at the Duke as she glided past.
"Now wait a moment!" the Duke cried. "We were told there were no other ladies to try on the slipper."
Cinderella turned and bowed her head. "Well, the purpose of trying to slipper is to see if it is the lovely young woman who his Highness found to be utterly delightful. My Stepmother, Lady Tremaine had me stay home that night as I was quite ill. I spent the night throwing up. So it couldn't possibly be me you're looking for." She looked up at Tremaine, with a sweet smile. "Isn't that right?"
"My stepdaughter is quite correct," Tremaine said, rolling with Cinderella's story. "A girl who was not at the Ball cannot be who you are searching for."
"I do have two step sisters," Cinderella offered, her tone earnest. "Maybe it is one of them? They were both at the Ball and told me all about the music and exquisite decor you had." She gave him another curtsy. "I hope you find her." She turned to her stepmother. "I'll be back around mid-afternoon." Cinderella turned and hurried off before anymore interruptions could occur.
Tremaine made a note to be a bit more lenient with the girl. She had assumed, with the her obvious lovesick daze, that she was the one to charm the prince. But if she was, why lie to the Duke? If she was ever found as the mystery woman, the Duke would recognize her and know she had lied to him. It was more likely the girl had been moping over someone else.
For now, she needed to focus on securing her own daughter's rise to money and prestige. With that, Tremaine put thoughts of Cinderella out of her head.
Cinderella, for her part, had a lovely time with Charming.
45.9 (Mattman The Comet): [Percy Jackson] / [SCP Foundation]
On the Subject of SCP-4006
Annabeth couldn't believe it.
Magnus couldn't believe it.
Massachusetts just... didn't exist. Was a product of The Mist. Why? No one truly knew. I mean, it could be surmised that the in-loop Yggdrasil developed the idea of Boston and the greater Massachusen state to better disguise itself but still.
Fucking Massachusetts.
Meanwhile Percy - bless the anchor's heart - was trying his best not to devolve into rancorous laughter while the good(?) Dr. Clef explained SCP-4006 in the most high-brow manner.
45.10 (ThanatosTiger): [Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir]
Alya was a journalist, admittedly a non professional one, but a journalist nonetheless. This meant she noticed things others didn't. For example, time repeating.
She wasn't sure how it happened, but she had travelled back in time to where school first started. Some of it pointed to Hawk Moth and Timebreaker or Time Tagger, or maybe something with Bunnyx or Viperion. But all those had holes. She didn't see a second version of herself, and she didn't remember using those miraculous, or seeing the two akumas return,
She had to figure this out. Option one was Find Ladybug and ask if she could use the Snake or Rabbit. That might not work, as she might not know if they exist yet. Option two was Hawk Moth.
Option two would be the easier one to try, but was extremely risky and completely horrible. Willingly going out and getting akumatized, hurting other people just to make her life easier? That wasn't even something Chloé would do, and Alya was not and will never be Chloé.
Speaking of the aforementioned devil, as soon as Marinette sat down Chloe appeared to force her to move somewhere else. Alya wasn't going to let that happen, and told her to back off.
Ugh, five minutes in and she already broke the first rule of time travel. It was worth it, since Chloe did back off, but still.
Class hadn't changed much after that, aside from a stewing Chloe Bourgeois. Unfortunately, what happened afterwards didn't either, despite trying to knock him away from the approaching butterfly.
Stoneheart threw her off him, knocking her into a wall. Her right arm hurt when she tried to move it, and she was pretty sure her back had a few bruises, but that didn't matter. She could take video in her left, which she had to to get Ladybug on the spot.
Fortunately, Lady Luck, or rather Ladybug, was listening to her, as she and Chat Noir were facing Stoneheart seconds after Alya asked her to come.
"Ladybug!" Alya yelled as she ran towards the hero. "Thank goodness. The akuma is in his right..."
"Alya!" Ladybug interrupted. "You need to get away. You're injured, oh Branches you're injured, and we can't have you around like this. Me and Chat will handle the akuma, we're the superheroes."
"But.."
"No buts!" With that Ladybug deposited her on the nearest building, then jumped off, leaving her there.
From what she heard, Ladybug had defeated Stoneheart similar to the first showing, except that she captured the akuma this time, so no multiple Stonehearts in Paris.
Mylène and Ivan also got together quicker than last time. So far everything had gone for the better.
Unfortunately, while Ladybug had probably travelled back in time, Alya wasn't certain. And the only way to confirm was to wait for another akuma, which Alya wasn't entirely looking forward too. Especially since it was her future boyfriend that was coming up the soonest.
Alya couldn't stop fretting over what was to come, which meant that she was prime for akumatization, something she didn't realize until her entire phone had turned black.
"Greetings, Cassandra. I am Hawk Moth."
No. Alya thought, fear emanating from her very pores.
"Ladybug isn't here to hear your prophecies, and she probably wouldn't listen if she was." Hawk Moth chuckled at that. "However I'm all ears. I'm sure you already know what I desire, and what I will promise you in return."
She should say it. It was only two letters, a single syllable. Something she said a thousand times. But it felt like she was climbing up the Eiffel Tower without her miraculous.
She struggled. She didn't want to, but it was almost impossible to resist.
"Ye-"
No! She won't do it. She won't get akumatized again.
"Cassandra, bring me their miraculouses!"
"No! I won't become another super villain!" Alya screamed. She felt herself dropping her phone. She couldn't hear Hawk Moth's voice. She was still herself.
Marinette ran towards her and picked her up, which Alya was grateful for.
"Alya, you're okay! Thank goodness!"
Alya chuckled a little at that. "Yeah, guess Chloe is good for something after all," Alya joked. She could still hear her bragging about forcing Hawk Moth out of her head.
Marinette's eyes widened, and a few seconds later Alya's did too. Marinette probably didn't travel back in time, and she just spilled some major future knowledge.
"Come with me." Marinette grabbed her and started dragging her to the nearest girl's restroom while texting someone with her other hand. The restroom was empty, but she dragged her to a stall and told her to sit down. Alya did so, wondering what was going on.
She heard the door open and the sound of running water. Someone knocked on their stall door, and Marinette opened it up. Standing before them was a blond that almost looked like Adrien except for one small detail.
"Adrien, have you always been able to turn into a girl? Cause I'm pretty sure your dad will be pissed that he missed out on having you model girl's fashion too."
Adrien rolled his, or her eyes at that. "I'm not exactly one to listen to my dad anymore."
"Adrien, I was kinda hoping we wouldn't drop too many bombshells on Alya." Marinette said darkly, and Alya was left with more questions than answers.
"Okay, Alya, have you been experiencing time repeating?"
"Yeah, Ivan just transformed into Stoneheart again. Wait, you and Adrien time traveled too? That's great! We can team up and try to find Ladybug and let her know what's going on!"
"That's, not exactly a good idea right now." Adrien said.
"Why not?" Alya accused
"Because you don't have any of the information. We can't just go running to Ladybug without everyone being on the same page." Marinette said.
"Oh, all right. Tell me everything."
"So there's this world tree called Yggdrasil that has every single world out there, with our world being one of its branches. It got broken, so while the Admins, ancient gods from myths try to fix it, we're repeating our lives until it's fixed. For us it's been almost a couple hundred years. For others it's been eons. We keep experiencing time looping, and sometimes our world has changed a bit. Sometimes it changes drastically. Sometimes we end up on a different branch. Adrien looped into Ranma ½ and ended up in the spring of the drowned girl."
"Marinette is the Anchor, and her job is to keep our world stable. My job, and yours, is to help keep her stable."
"You've been keeping her stable?"
"Ha-ha, I'm crazy for Adrien. No need to make the joke Alya."
"Wait, you too are together! Girl, that's awesome!"
"No. We're kinda taking it slow. Both of us have put each other on a huge pedestal and it's been taking us a while for us to accept each other as normal people. Plus how we've acted in pursuit of each other has us not willing to change that."
"Sounds like it's my job to unpause the relationship. I'm glad I have eternity to do so."
"No, Alya. We aren't going to change that any time soon."
"You're killing me girl. But all right. Can we go and tell Ladybug this now?"
Adrien and Marinette turned to each other, then Marinette nodded.
"Tikki."
"Plagg."
"Transform me!"
A minute later and Alya was sitting in front of Paris's number one superheroes.
"Eeeeeeeeee! Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! Ladybug and Chat Noir are my friends! I've interviewed my best friend. You're the best Marinette! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!"
"Think we should remind her that both her ships have sunk?" Chat Noir joked.
"Eternity." Alya said smirking. "So anything else I need to know?"
"How to Pocket. How to Ping. We'll show you those later. We'll tell you who the O7 are. But we should probably show something about our branch.
The two superheroes looked at each other. Adrien typed on his baton then handed it to Alya. A video started playing.
She saw Natalie transforming into Mayura. Adrien's dad turning into Hawk Moth. Adrien's mother in a crypt. Lila warning Marinette of what she'd do if she lets everyone know the truth.
"I... I'm the worst friend you've had."
"Alya..."
"I demanded you to prove Lila was lying when I just accepted she was telling the truth. Why are you being so nice to me?"
"Because you're better than you think you are right now. You helped me stand up to Chloe when I wasn't confident in myself. You've helped me try to get together with Adrien. I can point to a million moments where you've been an amazing friend, and hardly any where you weren't. You're my best friend Alya."
Tears were running down Alya's eyes. "You're too good Marinette. I promise to be the best friend you deserve."
"Uh, forgot to mention this. But me and you won't always realize time is repeating, or Awake. Sometimes we'll be Unawake."
"Then I'll be the best friend she deserves when I am Awake."
The three loopers hugged for what felt like hours before being cut off by a Marinette and Adrien detransforming.
"We should probably leave, I've got a kwami that will try eating toilet paper if I don't give him Camembert."
"That was one time!" Plagg yelled before getting cut off by everyone else laughing.
45.11 (The One named Light): [Disney] / [Kingdom Hearts]
Out of Ideas?
Mickey Mouse looked long and hard at the slate of projects laid out before him and sipped his coffee. Sora stepped into the room with a disappointed look on his face. "Alien, Home Alone... and Die Hard."
"Yeesh." Sora sat beside the mouse. "Is the company out of ideas?"
"Hollywood is out of ideas, hence why they rely on Reboots, Remakes, Reinterpretations and the like for easy money." emphasized Mickey. "We're just waiting out the storm until it finally turns to dust leaving room for the indies."
"Still, it's Disney. They've been a big well of Archival for as long as we could remember. As long as most people in the Hub could remember." Sora reminded him. "Why can't we just come up and get new ideas in there."
"It's not that simple." Mickey mentioned back. "The bigger the company and the more people under their employ, the smaller the individual voices become in comparison to the shareholders."
All Sora could do was lay there on the ground mumbling to himself. "God, I hate reruns..."
"There's just no escape."
45.12 (Masterweaver): [Bolt] / [Katawa Shoujo]
Oops.
Hanako tapped her pencil against the desk rapidly, trying to keep herself contained while Mutou introduced Hisao to the class again. She could see Shizune and Misha twitching as well, their eyes locked on the boy who, himself, was fidgeting awkwardly. It wasn't long before he took his usual seat next to Misha; she could see the pink-haired girl signing quickly at him, but from her vantage it wasn't clear what the two of them were saying to each other. Shizune, who was close enough to see the conversation, stiffened for a moment, before adjusting her glasses and putting on an exasperated expression.
Class continued as per usual, though none of the four of them paid too much attention. Shizune did glance back at Hanako and try to sign something, but Hanako wasn't able to get much from it-she really needed to learn how to read that sort of thing. It wasn't until the bell rang and the class dissolved that she managed to get to Hisao.
"Hey, so... about last loop, what-"
"Hisao, what the hell happened last loop?" Emi demanded, striding up. "I mean it was the middle of the loop and then, poof, suddenly I'm back on the track!"
Hisao bit his lip. "You know how we got warned about... Anchors dying?"
"Yeah, that's kind of why I'm here."
"Well... I was out in town and... well..." Hisao swallowed. "A white dog just jumped at me, out of nowhere, with this... incredibly loud bark."
"Really."
"And... I was so startled, that, um..." He rubbed his chest awkwardly.
"... that you had a heart attack, and wound up..." Emi pinched her brow. "Okay, wow, that's just... are we going to have to have somebody watching you at all times?"
"Erm."
"I mean..." Hanako cleared her throat. "I... guess it would make me more comfortable if, you know, somebody was on hand to prevent this sort of thing in the future."
[We can talk about it later,] Shizune decided. [Seriously, though, a dog?]
"Yeah, I don't know what that was about..."
"So let me get this straight. You thought this guy was cheating on multiple girls, so you jumped him to drag him to justice-and he fell over, died, and the loop crashed."
The white dog sighed. "Yes, Mittens."
"You just have the worst luck sometimes Bolt." The cat threw up a paw. "I mean, how does that even make sense?!"
45.13 (The One named Light): [Beauty and the Beast] / [Codename: Kids Next Door] / [Terminator]
Skunkbomb
It was quite the curious matter that Chip had found himself thrust into. One minute, he was getting ready to walk Sultan out to the backyard and was greeted with an explosion of rancid stench the next. One that was strong enough to knock him out cold for an hour or two whilst his assailants carry him back to their base.
When Chip came to, he awoke to a room of monitoring equipment made from the standard 2x4 technology of his colleagues at the Kids Next Door organization. But there was something off about it, something that made his surroundings feel new compared to the curious dream he had one night.
"Numbuh 30, it appears you've tripped up on the Skunkbomb we've left on your doorstep." His commanding officer, Numbuh 1, has begun probing him on his performance amidst the training drill planned out for today. "A rookie mistake, but we'll forgive that since you're a new addition to the team."
"Sorry, Mister Uno..." Chip sighed before catching his slip of the tongue. "Er, sorry, sir. Numbuh One, Sir."
"At ease, Cadet." Reassured his superior. "Just try to take better precautions with your training and be prepared for any unexpected attack that might be pulled by enemy adults in order to have their way."
"Roger that." chimed Chip. "As an aside, sir... Have you had any weird dreams?"
"Depends..." Numbuh 1 shrugged. "How would you describe you dream in particular?"
"Well, it's sorta like a fairy-tale that can't stop repeating itself." Chip started "I wake up as a teacup if that's surreal enough for you."
"Surreal, but not unexpected of your origin." hinted the elder boy. "Were you, by chance, under the dominion of the castle's native prince."
"Who got transformed into a big hairy beast!" exclaimed Chip. "But there was also this girl who came by to rescue her father-"
"Say no more, Numbuh 30." Nigel Uno gathered his thoughts and proceeded to ask one last question. "And you're certain this dream couldn't stop repeating and repeating before you woke up back home?"
Chip solemnly slunk back into his seat with a look of worry on his face. "It wasn't a dream, was it..."
"Afraid not..." Numbuh 1 sat beside the cadet two years his junior and talked up to the nearest computer screen. "He's one of us, Skynet. Fresh from his Branch, has not received the speech. Engage the presentation on my command."
-One Speech Later-
Numbuh 1 took great in explaining the function of the Loops as well as their purpose in maintaining the stability of Yggdrasil with technology engineer Hoagie P. Gilligan, designated as Numbuh 2 in the Kids Next Door Organization, sprinkling in his own two cents worth on the matter.
"So all this is is just a break in my 'baseline'..." Chip sighed to the Looping elder. "Before I wake up as a teacup again..."
"Disney franchising at its finest." Numbuh 2 sarcastically snarked.
"He's not exactly wrong, what with the new Variant and all." Numbuh 1 quickly caught what he just said and added: "What I meant to say is, you shouldn't focus too much on Baseline but instead what you can with so much time now in your grasp."
"Keep Movin' Forward." smirked Gilligan. "Modus operandi of the Disney Decade that led ya here."
"By archiving my world, right?" Chip added.
"Indeed." Numbuh 1 confirmed as an alarm siren sounded all over the treehouse.
"Trouble!" Numbuh 3 cried from the intercom system. "Stickybeard's raiding a riverbank of M&Ms, Mr. Fizz called in a buncha Ice Cream Men to apprehend our smuggling network and the Toilenator just snuck into a movie theater without paying."
"All vital missions worth taking." signaled the commander as his teammates rolled out for their next mission. "Numbuh 3, get Numbuh 4 to monitor our cinema spy. Numbuh 2, escort Numbuh 5 to the riverbed. Numbuh 30, consider this another test."
"Ready when you are, Mr. Uno!" Chip cheered.
"Then let's get to work, then." Numbuh 1 smiled back. "Kids Next Door, battle stations!"
45.14 (Masterweaver): [Alice in Wonderland] / [My Little Pony] - also compiled in MLP Time Loops as Loop 60.8.
Twilight shook her head as she Awoke, looking around to find herself sitting at what seemed to be, for all intents and purposes, an ordinary cafe. Well, ordinary for the victorian era anyway. She brought a hand up to her sunhat, tapping her finger against it as she waited for the loop memories to settle in.
"Oh dear. You're a guest looper, aren't you?"
"Ah..." She turned to the voice, discovering a young girl in a blue dress, the slightest curl to her blonde locks, and shimmering azure eyes that bespoke of a mind both ancient and strange. "Well, yes. Do you mind telling me where I am?" Her head tilted slightly. "According to what I recall, I'm... a librarian, which isn't out of the norm for me."
"An intellectual, then. Perhaps you will stay sane as you become unsane." The young girl curtsied. "I am Alice, if that means anything. If it does not, then we will have to talk about something with meaning."
"Alice, as in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland?" Twilight smiled. "I've read the books, and the Hunting of the Snark too."
The girl smiled, pulling up a chair and sitting down across from her. "It is so rare that somebody remembers the full title. I thank you for that."
"Not a problem."
Alice tilted her head. "You do actually mean that. How interesting. Tell me, are you human?"
Twilight giggled. "No. In my baseline, I'm a unicorn mage. Well, I do eventually become an alicorn-that's pegasus and unicorn and earth pony all rolled up into one-but it's an induced transformation."
Tap tap tap went Alice's fingers against her cheek. "That will be interesting. I must apologize, but this loop is not the safest even at its safest, and it is not at its safest now. In fact, in some ways it is at its least safe."
"Ah. Thank you for warning me. I suppose you want to discuss the details?"
Alice picked up her menu. "Quite. Did your preawake self order anything?"
"Ah, yes. A light salad, I believe." Twilight glanced down at her own menu for a moment before blinking in shock. "Hang on, what?"
"We've fallen down to chessboard one." The girl put the paper down. "Things are more truthful here than chessboard zero, but they are also less real. Up in the waking world your shadow, who may very well be a unicorn, is mimicking your current thoughts and actions as you mean them, not as you are doing them."
Twilight nodded, accepting the strange explanation. "'Leaves and cold roots tossed in spices with sliced fruit' is certainly a way of describing a salad." She clasped her hands. "So, I take it that this is wonderland we're in?"
"What wonderland is varies from loop to loop," Alice explained. "Sometimes it is merely a dream. Other times it is the world of the fae. Here and now it is the realms between reality and the department of works, which projects reality up onto the higher chessboards."
"...that sounds disturbingly like an exposed portion of Yggdrasil code."
The girl shrugged. "Maybe it is. It would certainly explain some things, but leave others unexplained."
The librarian unicorn sighed. "I guess that was to be expected. So, if chessboard one is the most overtly normal of these layers, I'm guessing that the Queen of Hearts is on one of the lower chessboards?"
"Hmmm, yes. She and the other Caretakers stay down on five and six, away from the filth of humanity. Though they do send agents up here," Alice added. "Trying to make us more like them, or wipe us out before we can get to seven and take over the department."
"...Is this one of those 'humans are special' settings?"
"Yes. The Caretakers are ancient and powerful but they operate by rules of narrative, where we humans can use logic and reasoning." The girl shrugged. "So that means we're the only one that can run the department."
"That makes them afraid, I take it."
"Oh yes. Thankfully, you've looped in early. It gets so much worse later on. Do you know, the admins don't come here anymore? They used to, trying to figure out what was wrong with this loop. Eight of them went insane, though. I don't know if they were cured."
A chill went down Twilight's spine.
"Not to worry," Alice continued calmly. "You'll be gone and back to unicorn land before you can go truly mad. But so long as you're here, do you mind helping me get down to chessboard seven? I always lock the doors to the Department as soon as I can, so that nobody ascends."
45.1: Welcome to the Loops, Xion. (For those who follow the Spacebattles thread, note that this is compiled somewhat out of order, but I wanted to get it in before another snip that mentioned Xion as a Looper. Also, this might technically take place before 44.6, I'm not sure if Xion was actually Awake then.)
45.2: Uh-huh.
45.3: You know, sooner or later that's probably going to come back to bite you, Janna.
45.4: Actually 4.2 continued.
45.5: And that was a thing.
45.6: Naminé makes a good therapist. Then again, she does have lots of experience with the mind.
45.7: Weird variant families are also a thing.
45.8: Smart of you, Cinderella.
45.9: Eeyeah.
45.10: Welcome to the Loops, Alya.
45.11: A real-life problem that desperately needs to be solved.
45.12: Mittens is the Anchor for Bolt.
45.13: And we go back in time to Chip's getting the Speech.
45.14: Another older Loop that's being crossposted here. Alice didn't originate as a Disney Looper (her baseline is the books by Lewis Carroll), but the 1951 Disney film is one of her regular variants, and she is a Princess of Heart in the Kingdom Hearts series, so she counts.