Helia opened his eyes, awaiting what he had done.

To his surprise, nothing had changed. The others were confused, looking around and examining themselves.

"What? But I was sure that I... changed everything. Changed everything... back."

"You almost did," someone spoke up from behind him, "but Riven crashing in gave me the last few precious seconds needed to fix this problem."

Helia whipped around to see a disappointed fairy he had never seen before.

"W-Who-"

"Up-pah-pah! Not one word." The fairy waved a hand, shushing him. "Hello, everyone. Thank you for handling this issue while I was at lunch. Apparently, my assistant sent an urgent email to Skuld, who in turn, contacted me, and ended my lunch early. I'm barely fed, I came back to a very stressful situation, and I'll be frank..." She turned back to Helia. "I'm really glad I fixed the problem you made, Helia. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Fand, the Admin for this Branch, and therefore, its protector above Flora herself."

Helia stared in shock.

"Do you have any idea what you almost did?"

"I... I..."

"Spit it out."

"I... just wanted everything to become... normal."

"Normal." For the first time, Flora spoke up. "Normal! Normal! Do you realize what kind of people you were going to kill, just to bring everything back to your so-called 'normal'!?"

"Flora... I-"

Faster than he could perceive, Flora appeared in front of him, grasping Helia's mouth with a vice grip. Anger and disappointment showed clear on her face; tears formed in her suddenly red eyes. "Not. One. Fucking. Word."

Flora shoved Helia to the floor as she turned and walked towards Tecna. Sharing a quick nod, they walked away.

Helia stared at their backs as they left.

Looking over to the others, he saw the same looks of disappointment and anger. "...guys?"

Timmy turned to follow Tecna and Flora, too disgusted to even speak with Helia.

Sky and Brandon looked at each other, then at Helia.

"Helia, just stay away from us," Sky said.

"I-"

"You've done enough," added Brandon. "Stella, what do you think?"

"...I think you and Flora took the words right out of my mouth."

The three walked away.

"N-Nabu? Aisha?"

The two glared at Helia.

"Can't you-"

"You tried to let me die, and keep Aisha and me away from each other," Nabu interrupted sharply. "We're not friends. Not anymore."

Helia pulled himself off the ground, only to see Bloom levitating the now still Diaspro, jaw tight and movements sharp. Bloom looked at Helia, and he could've sworn that the temperature of the room rose.

"Let's go. We're done here," Bloom said bitterly.

As the others wordlessly agreed and turned their backs on him, Helia wiped a drop of wetness from his cheek.

Finally, it was just him and Fand. He glanced over at the Admin.

"I suppose their actions speak for themselves. Congratulations, Helia. I hope you're proud of yourself." And Fand disappeared with a flash of ones and zeros.

Helia watched his friends- the others, staring at their backs as they walked away.

He was alone.

Helia felt no need to get up at all. He was done. There was no point anymore. He failed, and made things even worse for himself.

He closed his eyes.

"Well, you actually got off easy, all things considered."

Helia's eyes flew open and he turned his head to see Riven, looking down at Helia, arms crossed.

"What do you want? Are you here to gloat? To insult me?"

"If I wanted to insult you," Riven pointed out calmly, "I'd have joined the others and called you a bastard. An asshole. A monster."

"So why didn't you?"

Riven paused. "You could say it's because I think you still could be redeemed."

"I don't deserve it," Helia whispered to himself.

"And apparently, I don't deserve happiness." Riven shrugged. "That doesn't stop me from trying."

"Riven, just leave me alone."

"I could, but that would be the nice thing to do, wouldn't it?"

Helia laughed. It came out hollow. "Still the same old Riven, after all these years."

"Centuries might be more accurate. I'm probably about as old as the Trix- I've been keeping quiet for a long time."

"Is it because you dated Darcy?"

"Maybe. Or maybe Musa was responsible. Either way, they're dating, and I've had to fake shock and anger more than once."

"What's your point? Things changed, and you can accept it where I couldn't?"

"I'm saying that since I'm done Stealthing, I'm done pretending, and I can't pretend that I hate you." Riven settled a hand gently on Helia's shoulder.

"So you pity me."

"Basically."

"You feel sorry for me, and you want to help so that I'm not pathetic?"

"Pretty much. I've got a list of things I've wanted to do ever since I started Looping, and I've been adding to it. What's wrong with adding 'help Helia out' to the list?"

Helia said nothing.

"That's what I thought." Riven helped Helia up to his feet. "Let's get you back home. I'm sure you'd rather cry your eyes out in bed than in this place."

"...yeah. You're right."

"We should also patch you up- that beating you took while wielding that magic has got to hurt."

"Not as much I hurt them."

(Jesse Lee) (Awesomedude17)

"So, what's the situation on Diaspro?" Sky asked Bloom.

"She's stable, but she's still out. Out of all of us, she got the worst of us all."

Sky sighed as he sat down on a nearby chair.

"I can't believe it. Out of everyone who could have almost destroyed our Branch, it was Helia, of all people. I can't even think what's going through Flora's mind now."

"I can, and I really don't like it. On the plus side, Riven seems to be fine with Musa and Darcy dating."

"I doubt he's 'alright' with that, but at least he didn't stop them."

"True," Bloom sat down by Sky.

Silence.

"Bloom, I got to ask you something."

"Shoot,"

"If I were in Helia's place... would you absolutely hate me with every fiber of your being?"

"...I... don't know. I suppose I'd feel... betrayed, and angry... but I don't think I'd hate you that much."

"It's because you care for me, don't you?"

"...I suppose I do."

"Honestly, I'd be fine with you hating me in that situation. To even think about handling the Shadow Fire would require some bad thoughts. Speaking of, what's going to happen to either that or the Water Stars?"

"We'll have to wait until Fand tells us all. She's currently trying to relieve the stress this near-disaster caused."

"Writing cheesy romance fics?"

"I wouldn't put it against her."

"Me neither."

Now it was Bloom's time to sigh. Patting Sky on his back, she said, "Sky. You proved yourself today. I'm proud of what you managed to do."

"Thanks. Right back at you, Bloom."

Bloom smiled.

It was a very awkward silence between the two.

"So uh... You want to try and take all this madness off your mind?" Sky asked.

"Yeah. What are you thinking?"

"Something simple. A picnic. Maybe bring your rabbit?"

Bloom put her hand on Sky's shoulder.

"It's a date."

"Uh. Good. Let's go sometime after Diaspro wakes up."

"Okay."

"Are you sure? Because we can-"

"GO!" Keep Hope Alive cut Bloom off, pointing towards the door. The red head frowned at Diaspro, even as the blonde's Stand made flapping motions, trying to shoo Bloom and Sky from the room.

"Seriously," said Hope in Diaspro's Voice, "I'm fine, go have your picnic, I'll still be here when you get back."

Sighing in defeat Bloom leaned forward to plant a kiss on Diaspro's brow, not that the blonde could feel it.

"We're glad you're alright," Sky winced at his own words, "for a given definition..."

Hope laughed on Diaspro's behalf, "I know what you meant, now get out, go, shoo, away with ye."

The couple shared a brief giggle, and said their goodbyes, finally leaving Diaspro and Hope in peace. Hope's eyes scanned over the medical monitoring equipment attached to her user's body, though she'd feel anything wrong before the machines did.

Hope was just about to open up a jelly cup for Diaspro to eat, when a soft knock came at the door.

"Come in," the Stand called, and a second later, Riven's head appeared around the door. "Hey Riven."

"Hey Hope, hey Di'. How're you feeling?" The young man stepped fully inside the room, leaving the door open behind him.

"Like I've had a stroke," Hope answered for Diaspro, "again."

Riven snorted, "well that answer should have been obvious."

"And yet," Hope fixed him with a snarky-face, but the specialist's gaze was fixed on Diaspro, watching for any movement in the unresponsive muscles of her face.

"Would this be a really bad time for a chat?" Riven reached forward and fixed a lock of the blonde's hair.

"...Helia? Come on in," Hope called to the boy loitering in the hallway. Helia stepped inside the room cautiously, as if waiting to be attacked.

"Hello Helia," he looked confused, gaze swaying back and forth between Hope, and Diaspro's prone form. "I'm Keep Hope Alive, you can call me Hope," he didn't look less confused, so she continued. "I'm Diaspro's Stand, I'm normally intangible and inaudible, but at the moment I'm Aligned with The Mirror and The Voice cards and... this makes no sense of the situation for you, does it?"

"No, it... it doesn't," he hunched in on himself slightly.

"Don't worry about it then," Hope said with a dismissive wave of her hand, "it just means I'm speaking for Diaspro, and as Diaspro for the most part, you can catch up on the rest later. Now, what would you like to talk about?" As if she didn't already have a very good idea.

Helia's eye's flickered to Riven, who gave his friend a small, encouraging nod. "I wanted to apologise to you, for the way I acted, and for what I did to you."

His words sounded somewhat rehearsed, and Hope was suddenly flooded with a memory. Diaspro was recalling her own 'post screw up apology letter', as much as her brain was currently capable of it, at least.

Hope let the words hang in the air for a small while, before replying. "I'm still angry about what you did in the fight, how you tried to get inside my mind. But that said? I can kind of understand where you were coming from. In my early days, I tried to fix things too; of course, I tried to fix them in the... 'other' direction."

Helia looked between fairy and Stand, a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

"So while I retain the right to be pissed-as-hell? I do forgive you, I understand what it is to be lost, just... talk to us if you start to feel that way again? Please?"

"I... I will, thank you," Helia's smile was wobbly as he looked Hope in the eye, Diaspro's eyes having slipped closed.

Riven stepped to Helia's side, and placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, "see, told you Di' would be the best place to start."

"Yeah, yeah she was... but everyone else..."

"Will need more time," Riven finished for his friend, "so we'll go work on you, and you can finish your apologies when they've cooled down, and gotten some more distance from this mess."

Helia made a quite hum of agreement, eyes tracing over Diaspro's pale face. "I didn't want this, I just... I can't believe that I..."

Before Helia could slip too far into self-pity, Hope scoffed loudly. "What? You think you are responsible for this?" She gestured to the limp fairy in the hospital bed, "please, it was a magical-overload induced stroke... not the first one either, she'll be right. When depends on whether or not the loop crashes before the magical levels in her brain have settled enough for regeneration magic to help rather than hinder, but she'll be fine, won't even have any memory gaps."

Helia was looking a little lost again.

"Hey, just focus on getting yourself to a good mental space and we'll call it even, alright?" Helia nodded, still looking uncertain. "Great, now shoo, it's nap time."

"Thanks Hope," Riven gave her a smile, "later Di'." With small waves, the two boys left.

As the door swung closed, Hope frowned. Something was wrong.

"... Damnit Riven! Stop stealing my jelly cups!" Hope let out a heavy sigh, "every freaking time, I.. I should have seen it coming." (J.S.)

To most people, waking up with a beautiful girl in the room would be a blessing. For Helia, waking up with Darcy in the room was a reason to panic.

"Calm down, child, I'm not going to harm you." she said.

"And why should I believe you?!"

"Because if I wanted I'd have already done so."

Helia had to admit she had a point, Darcy never had any qualms to attack a sleeping opponent. Or their dreams, really. So he demanded: "What do you want, then?"

"Just tell you I won't take revenge."

"What?!"

"I know, I know... And I have all the reasons in the world to do you horrible things. It's just that I'm trying to give up on grudges, especially when I know how do you feel more than I care for. That madness' punishment enough, especially once you realize what you've done. That, and I feel a bit responsible, I should have seen it coming much earlier. I'm not going to forgive you anytime soon... But I have better things to do than making you pay. Like cuddling Musa, something I'm going to do right now."

Darcy made to leave, then stopped and said one last thing: "Almost forgot: what I said is only for myself, don't expect for a moment my sisters not to do you something horrible the moment you look the other side. They still hold a grudge against Riven for something that was actually my own fault..." (Lord Martiya)

*Knock knock knock*

The sound of knocking woke Diaspro from her light slumber. Beside her, her Stand Materialised. "Come in," Keep Hope Alive called.

"Hey Diaspro," The woman who entered smiled kindly at the blonde.

"Fand? I wasn't expecting you," Hope moved a chair to accommodate the Admin.

"Well, considering everything that just happened, I thought now might be the time to give you something." Fand winced a little guiltily, "I kept meaning to get this to you but... Admin stuffs?"

"Lay it on me," Hope said with an understanding laugh.

Fand handed Hope a certificate with only eight words. Hope blinked, looked up at the Admin and back down to the parchment. The words hadn't changed. Reading through Hope's eyes, Diaspro came to a slow realisation.

Diaspro Isis : Winx Branch Potential MLE Status : Negligible

Hope was flooded with Diaspro's disbelief and relief and hope and happiness and triumphant vindication and glee. "This, I'm..." "You're officially off the list," Fand grinned as her looper's emotions spilled into the empty air of the room.

Looking down to read the certificate again, a dark thought occurred, and Diaspro's joy soured in her mouth.

"Diaspro?" Fand reached for the girl's flesh hand.

"Sorry, I just... realised it felt like an unfair trade off, him for me." Hope didn't need to say his name for Fand to realise Diaspro was thinking of Helia. "He's on the List isn't he?"

"Yes, but Diaspro, you can't-"

"He can never find out," Hope whispered harshly, gazing intensely at the Admin, "if he found out..."

"It could destroy him," Fand finished the thought, a twinge of guilt slipping past her 'I've got this all under control' facade.

Diaspro's had twitched sluggishly as she tried to return her Admin's comforting hold. "This wasn't on you," Hope said for Diaspro, her hand coming to rest on Fand's shoulders.

"Yes it was, I'm the Admin-"

"That doesn't matter!" Hope didn't even bother to pretend to be sorry for raising her voice to talk over her Admin. Fand raising an eyebrow in challenge. "None of us caught this before it was almost too late-"

"I knew he had Setsuna syndrome." Hope stopped, waiting for Fand to continue, "I knew, Keech even sent me a notice, but I'd... I sent Helia to Setsuna herself, I thought I'd taken care of it, I didn't... I should have been more thorough."

"And what, make him feel villainised because no one trusted him? You are not the only one who failed here, but guess what I learned in all my time trying to be better?" Fand shook her head, passing on the guess. "You can't make some one learn if they don't want to learn. We could all have done everything right, and that would be no guarantee."

"'We as Admin may not interfere with the Free Will of Loopers, we can influence them by giving them information or denying it, but their decisions will be, as they must be, their own.'"

"But you still feel responsible," Fand nodded, "and nothing I say, nothing any of us say will make you feel any differently. We Know you do your best for us."

"I just wish my best was better. Not just with Helia, I've got some bad news for Tecna, about her Pocket. She's free to tell you, but she should know first."

"I understand," with out warning, Hope pulled Fand into a hug. "We'll get through this."

"Why are you so good at this?"

"I spent a very long time on your side of this conversation," Pulling back Hope grabbed a small jelly cup from the bedside cabinet, "jelly cup?"

"Oooh, peach/mango!" Fand plastered a false and brittle grin across her mouth as she took the cup, "alright, time for me to finish the rounds!" Hope nodded her understanding and Fand vanished from the room. A second later Hope vanished as well, while Diaspro drifted back to sleep.

A soft knocking made Tecna look up from the patch of carpet she'd been staring at, just in time to see Fand appear from thin air.

"Fand," Tecna's voice carried both her pleasure at seeing the Admin, and her shock and sorrow over what had been happening.

"Tecna, where's Flora?" Fand joined Tecna on the couch.

"Bathroom, crying." Tecna made a motion towards the bathroom, and now that she was listening for it, Fand could her the Anchor's sobs. "She needed a bit of space," Tecna explained to the unasked question 'why aren't you comforting your wife?'

"I see."

"So, what brings you our way," Tecna asked, though she had a good idea.

"It's about your Pocket," Tecna sat up straight, her Pocket had not been what she was expecting the Admin to talk about, "unfortunately, I couldn't restore the contents of your Pocket."

Tecna leaned over to hug Fand."That's fine, I've gotten used to dealing with a fresh slate. Beside, the most important contents survived."

"Oh?"

Tecna took out the most important thing she had left, and then magicked it open.

Fand took a long look, and smiled.

"Your wedding photos. Every single one." She traced one of the photo's with a delicate touch.

"Yeah, it was these that allowed me to get back into tinkering." Tecna smiled at the memory.

"I'm glad that you're remembering the good times. I know it's going to be difficult for you can get past this."

"I want to clock him in his damn face," Tecna snarled, her body language moving from melancholy to anger in a split second.

Fand recoiled in surprise, "What?"

"You heard me."

"Tecna please don't, I understand your anger but... he needs to get better, if you hurt him right now... please, I can't condone this."

Tecna huffed in a grumpy way, slouching back in the couch to seethe.

"Tecna..." Fand began, before realising she didn't know what to say. But she didn't need to say anything, Tecna took in a deep breath and let it and her ire go.

"Sorry Fand, I just, I know you know how personal this is for all of us, it must be personal for you too, but..." she winced as something in the bathroom broke with a loud crack, "I think we all just need to be angry and hurt for a while, we can't switch our emotions off like they run on a light switch, we need to feel before we move on."

"I understand, and I'm sorry I didn't stop this from happening, it's my responsibility as your Admin to protect you from things like this and I failed." Tecna's hand was warm when it brushed across her back, a gesture of solidarity Tecna couldn't put into words.

'We're in this together, even if we don't see you here.'

The silence settled into comfortable and Fand stood, "I have to get back to my desk, but let me know if you need anything."

Tecna stood as well, "we will," and wrapped her arms around the Admin, "goodbye, Fand."

"See you later Tecna," Fand replied, before the duo pulled away from one another. Fand disappeared before Tecna's eyes, and a moment later Flora appeared around the corner, her eyes bloodshot and her face pale.

"I thought I heard Fand?" Flora's eyes swept the room, catching on the wedding album.

"You did, she just left," Tecna held out a hand for Flora, who took it and let herself be pulled onto the couch, into her wife's embrace. "She wanted to let me know she couldn't save anything from my Pocket."

"Oh honey," Flora stroked Tecna's cheek in sympathy. Tecna shook her head, nuzzling into her lover's shoulder, "it's fine, I have the important things." Eyeing the Albums, Flora hummed in agreement.

As Fand returned to Adminspace, she collapsed onto her desk.

"It was rough, wasn't it?" Miele spoke up.

"It was. I'm not sure what exactly I can do. Thank goodness Riven's getting involved with Helia."

"I see. Oh, you also got an email from Ihy."

"What is it?"

"Long and short of it, he's inviting you to drinks. His treat after what just happened."

"I'm going to need a stiff drink tonight."

(Jesse Lee & Jeanne)

Final Fantasy VI / Winx

Helia Awoke on top of a large bird that went Kwaa, kicked him off and took off a high speed leaving behind only one yellow feather. That was not a good way to start a Loop. He was not in his home loop which might be a good thing at the moment, but now was not the time to think about that. He could see some smoke in the distance, so he decided to go in that direction. He didn't have better idea of do as his mount, which his in-loop memories said was a chocobo, was gone.

The smoke was coming from small collection of stone buildings around a town square. A tiny little farming village that he could hopefully some information and supplies.

An old woman was doing something with some wool and two flat pieces of wood near the edge of town. She looked up at him as he drew near. "Now, I don't recognize you . Where did you come from, sonny?"

"I lost my chocobo."

"Went running off did it? Wel,l you can find dried meat and other supplies at the general store if you want to continue your travels and if you want to stay here that are a number of families who could use and extra set of hands." So Helia headed in the direction she pointed. He didn't have anything better to do.

"It's a beautiful town isn't it". said a voice "A little bit isolated, but with all the trouble in the world most people here realize that the peace is more important." He turned to see a green haired woman. "It doesn't protect them though, in baseline when Kefka gets ahold of the Warring Triad, the source of magic in this world. Ita and Alfres died when Kefka reshaped the land. That tore off the building on the southwestern part of the village. Coran took in their young son, but he died when Kefka turned his Light of Judgement on the town. Teledina and Nicilla also died from that. Teledina died instently, but it took Nicilla two days to die. By the time I made it here in baseline, there were only three building still standing and Duane and Katarin the oldest people left. The adults all put their children's lives before their own. Smilier things have happened in every other town, and city in this loop."

"Why doesn't someone stop this?"

"I try to every Loop. Only manage to succeed about half the time." She turned to face him, "There is nothing particularly special about baseline. It just happened first."

"Who are you?"

"Terra Branford, Welcome Warring Triad Loop, Helia."

"How do you know who I am?"

"Cloud told me. He is quite annoyed at you trying to hurt his mom." (Tovath)