Disclaimer: I hereby disclaim all rights to all characters (save for those of my own creation) during these two very different meetings… especially for the one who was not expecting to hear what was so suddenly said.

~保護者~

"Waiting For Gods"

~保護者~

Nier was waiting patiently outside of his home when a portal opened. Turning to face it, he peered into its depths and then relaxed into an easy smile. "Ah, Ylden. Nice of you to drop in. I trust our resident napper located you without too much difficulty?"

A faint shrug served as a response. "Better get some good info out of this. I'm still not being offered a place among you all, ya know."

Nier let out a quiet laugh as the portal shut. "I understand. However, I feel I simply must remind you that the role of God of Grumpy Bastards is still available."

"I gotta say, that's not really a good place for me. If you haven't noticed, I'd fit 'Cocky Bastard' just a little better," he replied easily, stepping forward with little hesitation.

This time, Nier laughed out loud. He turned, gesturing for the two cats to follow him, and began walking. "Anyway… come on. We do have a meeting to attend, after all… Though, we are still waiting on a few people." He looked back at Sona and asked, "Will your ever-elusive friend be joining us?"

Sona shrugged with an agitated sigh. "Dunno. That asshat comes and goes as he pleases."

"Mm… That's true enough. I see little of him in most any scenario," Ylden said with his own half-hearted shrug. "I doubt he would miss something such as this, however."

"So you weren't able to locate him, Sona?" Nier asked, mildly surprised. "Normally only you even can. Or, at least, only you can typically do so easily." After that, he let the subject drop for now. They rounded the Rune God's home to a grassy area with a couple of benches, where he gestured for them to sit down. "Once Finis and Cere arrive, we can start our discussions. Until then, I'm afraid that we'll just have to wait."

The God of Thieves (a grey cat with hazel eyes named Therin), watched them with annoyed, hooded eyes. "When exactly are you gonna bother to explain why this meeting is even happening?"

Nier sighed. "I don't really want to repeat myself over and over again, so I'll explain about that when everyone is here. But I can tell you this: we're having this meeting because Jet ordered it. We're needed here, so here we are."

Ylden motioned for Sona to move to his left as a portal opened to his right, a leg immediately flying out and tripping the green hedgehog that stepped through. "I don't remember you being invited, hedgehog."

Letting out a short yowl of surprise, Therin leapt out of the way of the green blur that proceeded to fly across the gathering place, then watched with everyone else as said blur slammed head-first into the house. "Watch it!" he hissed at Ylden just after the crash.

Nier, meanwhile, ran a hand over his face. "Oh, boy," he sighed. Already, he recognized who had arrived.

"Damn it!" Steam cried out as he rolled to his feet, snorting in frustration at the glaringly calm black cat. "You're an ass."

"Mm."

Scenting the air, Therin quickly demanded in his usual harsh way, "Who the hell are you, kid?"

Nier answered first, hoping to stave off an argument of any sort. "He's a Balancer from another timeline. His name is Steam, and he's only here to help from what I understand." Despite his words, distrust filled Therin's eyes still.

"Nier is right," an ancient yet powerful voice explained from nearby. Turning around, Nier spotted Cere (none other than the Goddess of Judgement) and smiled. "He's not in any way bad, even if he's an asshole at times."

"I resent that," huffed the hedgehog.

Cere glanced over the group, her lips forming a terribly straight line as she searched. "Finis should arrive here soon. I know he doesn't tend to stray… far." Knowing she was speaking of the God of Night, Nier blinked.

"How come?" Sona posed, tilting her head with a faintly curious and unknowing expression.

The Goddess of Judgement took a moment to mull over her answer, eyes closing momentarily. "So to speak, we have intertwined roles. For me to cast various judgements, I need the aid of a powerful being of Darkness such as Finis. And without him, there are some that I couldn't cast at all."

"Likewise," Neir jumped in, "she's tied into his role as well. See, Darkness is normally an energy, just like light. Night energy is Darkness, but based almost solely on a more magical element than normal energy-based Darkness. But nevertheless, being Darkness, it can go out of control and do great harm. This is where Cere comes in. By casting some of her special Judgements, the ones that require Finis himself, she aids in drawing that rampant energy out of him and his realm, thus preventing it from going out of control." He paused for a second, then thought to add, "This only works in his case, though. In most beings of Darkness, taking away energy only promotes the creation of more. With Night energy, that doesn't happen. And the only reason they can do these things with each other is because of how intrinsically they have been tied to one another due to the circumstances and timing of their births."

Sona blinked. "Oh."

Her vague response earned a small eye-roll. "I'll refrain from commenting on that, because we've already been on the cusp of a fight today. Cere, you ran into Li, right?" Ylden asked, raising an eyebrow faintly. As he spoke, Finis inexplicably appeared in the shadows of the house nearby and sat down. The black and purple Babylon gazed upon the group silently, then closed his dark purple eyes.

Cere nodded faintly. "Yeah. He's currently collecting something from wherever his friend Novei used to live. He will be here momentarily."

Therin sat up straight. "Wait, you guys managed to find his ass? We'd all started assuming he got fried years ago."

There was an annoyed snort from the resident flaming cat. "We knew he wasn't dead, fuckface," Sona growled.

Glancing to the red-eyed, black feathered Hexan he was tied to, Finis telepathically (as he almost never physically spoke, preferring telepathy with Cere and general Thought-Speech with others) commented to her in a dry tone, "They are as irritating as ever."

"I know." There was a faint red pulse from Cere, immediately catching the attention of Therin and Sona. "We are not here to be at odds with one another." Sona huffed, but otherwise seemed to oblige with her attention flicking elsewhere for the time being. Therin just looked away, irritated as always.

Nier tried to steer things on track a little. "Do we want to wait for Li to arrive, or should we go ahead and begin?"

"Let's get this going. He won't miss anything that me or Finis couldn't quickly fill him in on," Cere murmured softly in response.

Nier nodded and leaned back against the wall of his house… ignoring the fresh imprint of Steam's head for now. And the fuming hedgehog who sat beside it, for that matter. "Sounds good to me. As I was telling Sona, the reason why I've asked you all to come here is both simple and complicated. The simple part of the reason is that Jet said we needed to get together and have this little chat."

That caught Finis' attention, and he opened his eyes again. Using Thought-Speech, he commanded simply, "Explain."

"Getting to that," Nier assured. "But before I do, I need to ask a few questions. First of all, how many of you are aware of what went down recently with Tein?"

"Myself and Steam are, assuredly," Cere answered.

Ylden spoke up, saying, "As am I."

"I heard about it," Therin shrugged. Sona nodded in agreement with Therin. Finis didn't speak up, but it wasn't necessary since knowledge and information was often shared freely between Cere and himself.

"Alright, so that's one less thing I have to explain," Nier acknowledged in a pleased tone. "On to what you guys probably don't know, then. Jet's been keeping me up-to-date via various means with what's been going on since he killed Tein. From what he's said in the last few hours, the other evil Immortal was somehow killed as well, and two more Immortals have somehow filled their place without being born here. These events have various evil forces in a bit of a frenzy, since they can sense the shifting powers and whatnot."

There was a sigh from Ylden. "I killed the other Immortal, after being granted the ability to do so. We made way for the parents of Jet, Sein and Alana," he explained easily enough, as if it was no big deal.

Obvious questions needed to be raised about this, but Nier left no time for that just now. "...Alright. But we'll get more into that later. There are a couple bigger issues that merit our attention right now. Namely, those threats I mentioned. As you all are aware, the God of Demons has been increasingly active over the past dozen of eons. His levels of activity have only been increasing over the years, and from what Jet tells me it's been absolutely skyrocketing throughout the course of the last seven or so centuries. We know he's up to something, but aside from knowing that he's been gathering these odd mirror shards, we aren't sure what he's doing."

This was when Li finally showed up, walking through a portal and smiling sheepishly. Cere glanced his way and filled him in on the current topic while Sona decided to speak. "Do we have any clue what those shards are? I doubt he'd bother to be constructing some large-ass mirror for any conventional purposes."

Nier let out a heavy sigh. "We know just a few things, and nothing more. One, these are shards he will murder for. As in, far more savagely than he does for most any other reason. He has brought entire realms to their knees solely to lay claim to even the smallest of these shards. Secondly, we know that they have some kind of arcane magical properties to them, though Jet and I didn't have much time to study it before the shard we'd acquired was stolen from us. And, lastly, we know that he is indeed constructing something with those shards… though, as you said, it most certainly will not be just a normal mirror."

"It's likely something akin to a portal. I myself have a power that allows me to travel between mirrors, so the big question is likely where the portal leads or to what." Cere offered, a notable frown on her face. Finis offered a curt nod of agreement.

"That's what I was afraid of," Nier confirmed with another sigh. "But whatever that mirror will be used for, it seems we're not the only ones interested in it… or in the man creating it."

A much softer, gentler voice suddenly murmured, "I could not wish more strongly that you were wrong, my friend."

Turning his head, Nier gazed upon the mirage of the Goddess of Life. He honestly had not expected to see her here, as her physical form was literally rooted to her world, but his surprise was belied by the sense of peace and calm that always followed this woman around. "So you know about this, too, Cosmo?"

Cere motioned to Cosmo so as to invite her to continue. Cosmo acknowledged them both with a small incline of her head. "Jet and I have been monitoring the situation for some time now," she murmured, "but the time for observation has since passed. The Trokkelar Army is beginning to rise out of the shadows anew, and they have currently set their eyes upon the God of Demons and his actions. Word has traveled that the two forces are on the brink of war with one another once again, as well as them both still being completely at odds with the Immortals."

Cere's fists clenched at the mention of the Trokkelar Army, a dangerous light of hate flaring into her eyes before she managed to quell it. It was a reaction that Finis shared, though his response was more subtle. Their hate was justified, since they had participated in the original wars against the Trokkelar Army so many, many eons ago. "There's little chance of them working together, I assume?"

"None at all," Nier confirmed. "The Army tried to coax and then later coerce an alliance several dozen years ago, and… let's just say that ended in their territory being shrunken by a fair margin via sheer destruction. The God of Demons has expressed zero desire to work with anyone, let alone them."

Steam finally bothered to join the conversation. "He's not gonna work with fuckers like them. Firstly, they'd get in his way. Secondly, they have very conflicting interests. And we all know the God of Demons absolutely refuses to let anyone have any degree of control over what he does."

"There is also the fact that he resents them for previously stealing many of his more powerful demons to turn them into their mindless Pyrzar beasts," Cosmo added quietly. "He views them as puppets, from what I have heard, whereas he views his demons as proper warriors. It was a source of great anger between them."

"That makes sense. That's a direct attack on his army, which he wouldn't take lightly. But… if they're going after the powerful demons, couldn't they also be recruiting or otherwise controlling people that aren't demons?" Sona asked.

"They have their allies," Nier answered grimly, "all of which appear to be willing participants so far. Most notably, members of powerful families of Darkness… such as a surprising variety of the once-dormant chameleons."

This caught Finis' attention. After all, the Chameleons had been keeping themselves hidden ever since the great purge so many eons ago. "That should not be possible," he muttered.

"Somehow, it is," Nier shrugged. "But it does get worse. Some of us here have heard of Nyokae, sole surviving member of one of the greatest chameleon clans of old, yes?"

"She's annoying," Ylden remarked faintly, sighing faintly and leaning up against a wall of his own magic. "I've had a run in with her once. Got caught up in another brawl that was nearby and she vanished."

"She likes to fuckin' toy around with people," Therin growled. "Irritates the shit out of me whenever I think about it. I've dealt with her several times because we wound up trying to steal the same shit. She always got away with those things, too. Probably gave them to whoever she's working for."

"Most likely," Nier confirmed. "She does work for the Army, after all. She is one of their top commanders, operating under the direct instructions of their sole true leader." He paused, visibly troubled, then asked, "Who here needs explanation about the matter of chameleon clans before I continue? The gravity of this will fail to sink in if anyone is uninformed."

Li sheepishly raised his hand, shortly followed by Sona. "Not a clue about it," Li said.

"Yeah, explain it," Therin grumbled. "May as well."

Nier nodded once. "First, you need to understand about these people as a whole. Aside from the Tokarians, these are the oldest beings of Darkness in existence. They emerged into being directly from the Garden of Darkness itself, the point where the Realm of Darkness directly touches this realm. It's where the two meet, allowing easy passage back and forth for beings of Darkness. They lived there for many, many generations, forming groups based on power alone. Eventually, these groups formed blood ties through births and the like, thus creating clans of families."

Finis closed his eyes again. …'Families'... Perhaps only in the vaguest sense.

"Over time," Nier continued, "each family began to display curious black marks that distinguished every family from the rest. In their young, these marks would manifest as specific patterns such as stripes, vines, waves, and so on that would cover just one part of a person's body. These parts could be the face, an arm, the torso… most anything, really. But as the youngster aged and grew into their Darkness more and more, it wasn't just their powers that would mature. Their markings would as well, coalescing eventually into a single symbol on the right or left shoulder, depending on what side of the body the patterns were originally on. The original pattern was always tied into only one family's symbol, meaning every person uniquely marked from birth."

"That's fucking weird," Therin muttered.

He went ignored. "Of all the clans, there were just a few that rose above the rest in terms of power and sheer evil. ...Though, they were all evil, mind you. Only three of these clans are relevant to this, however. One was the clan marked by diagonal stripe that bears a striking resemblance to the shape of a slash wound from a dagger. It's the same angle as a forward slash in a URL, for the reference of those of us who use computers." Therin silently huffed at the odd reference. "This is the clan that the infamous Nyokae hails from. The first of the other two was the clan marked by a simple four-point diamond-shaped star. The last of these three clans had a slightly more complicated symbol. They were marked by a serpentine dragon of sorts, the kind still often seen represented in ninja culture today, that was coiled into a spiraling shape with its head at the center."

Therin frowned at him. "Okay… so why are they so important?"

"Because one single generation ago, one descendant of each of these two clans fell for the other," Nier explained slowly, "and they bore a child. Members of many other clans had been being born inherently neutral for numerous generations by that point, but these three more powerful clans, along with some others, had continued to be evil until this point - and in some cases still do so to this day. The parents of that child and that child himself are so far among the only members of those powerful clans, in particular, to not be born evil."

He continued without allowing anyone to speak. "Though these two individuals were neutral, however, they couldn't be and subsequently weren't far removed from the evil of their parents and other ancestors. Evil that now lurks just beneath the surface in their son. A child no longer, he is now a very powerful and highly-skilled adult who has somewhat fallen under the sway of Nyokae and her own evil. He remains an ally for now, but we have to acknowledge the fact that she doesn't intend to allow him to stay that way. The fact that basic patterns have begun appearing on his arm as of late is proof of her influence. Our enemies are making a very obvious and active effort to steal an ally - possibly even other allies as well - right out from underneath us, and it's something that we have to be mindful of… and prepared for."

"Not to mention they're gonna try collecting people that we may or may not have a clue about," Steam muttered, a deep frown on his face. "He isn't the only one that's gonna get involved, and that's a fact."

Several inquisitive looks were passed his way, but Nier spoke first. "Anyone in particular that we should be concerned about?"

Steam sighed faintly. "Not sure of any in particular. I've already begun noticing the divide from this timeline and the one that I came from."

Nier opened his mouth to reply, only to find the entire conversation derailed when the sun overhead began to shine noticeably brighter than normal. Squinting upward, Nier gained a faint smile. "Knew he'd show up eventually."

"Took him long enough. Slow fucker," Sona snorted, glancing up with squinted eyes. "Hurry up, you old bastard!"

There was an intense flash of searing-hot light, and then it vanished as though it had never been. A hard fist thumped Sona on the head almost immediately after those words left her mouth. "And who, exactly, are you calling old?" huffed the newcomer who now stood beside her.

Sona growled at the annoying sensation, huffing. "You, of course. If I called Cere or Finis old, I'd have been punted into another reality or something."

"You'd best mind your manners in this company," the man chuckled wearily, "judging by the looks you're getting right now." Sona snorted at him, but otherwise didn't respond. Ignoring her snort, he turned to address the rest of the group. "I'm assuming I've missed a fair bit of what you lot have been discussing," he remarked, glancing curiously at Steam as he spoke.

Cere nodded faintly. "I'll fill you in within a moment," she answered to the man with a faint smile. "Thanks for reigning that fireball in for us."

The God of Suns indulged in another world-weary smile before stating, "I'm afraid I can't stay long. Other matters require my attention, unfortunately. Whatever important things you all discussed that I need to know, please share them soon." Cere nodded in response and began filling him in as quickly as possible.

Once all was said and done, Nier informed him of one more thing. "And in your case in particular, there is another bit of news. Good news, in fact. Sonic is back. You know, Jet's friend."

This successfully stunned the god into silence.

~保護者~

Within her home on a desolate planet, Astra roamed throughout the building, pinning papers to the walls and examining various runes that she'd carved into the wood. The home was covered in pitch black markings from where she'd practiced various spells and attempted several questionable procedures of varying types. Close to her hand, suddenly a corner of some piece of paper began to smolder and then burn with eerie black and crimson flames. The same began to occur on numerous other papers one after another all throughout the room mere seconds after the first one.

"Oh, fuck. Fuck!" Astra immediately cast a spell on the room to try and keep the papers from burning. "Who the hell is touching my shit?" she demanded loudly, magic circles appearing in the air around her. Purely to spite her at this point, the God of Demons made himself visible and ceased hiding his presence and very deliberately touched a finger to yet another paper. Fire sparked to life where his finger rested, continuing to burn even as he pulled it away. A growl escaped the cat momentarily until she realized exactly who this intruder was. "Oh, fucking hell…"

For once, the God showed no signs of negativity despite her reactions. In fact, he was more openly amused than anything else. She had, after all, been quite vocal in her angry distress. "You should take more care to guard that which matters to you," he drawled, idly watching as page after page around them tried its damnedest to burn into naught but ash.

"I've got it all fucking memorized, but this is millennia of work just being burned to ash," she retorted, snorting in anger at him. "And here you are, getting a kick out of it all."

His amusement only building, he queried in a smooth voice, "Is there something you mean to say to me?"

"Bitch."

He smirked at her, glowing demonic eyes alight with dark humor. "I have been called worse things," he rumbled, his amusement making itself known audibly in a sort of small growl. Then, all at once, he seemed to grow more serious. "But you should know, woman… you are woefully unprotected, yourself."

"I didn't expect the God of Demons to go after a lowly sorceress in her shitty hut."

This seemed to suddenly irritate him. "I would not trouble myself over a lowly sorceress," he responded with a frown. "As it is, you waste my time, in spite of your potential." He was beside her in a flash, a sharpened knife digging into her arm. "I suggest you choose your words wisely," he warned. "As it stands, I am prepared to keep you alive, for now… But that can change."

Astra growled, both in pain and agitation at her situation. "What do you even want, then? Surely I don't have anything that's actually useful for you, seeing as not even the Immortals can properly stand against you."

"Perhaps not. But I am not after what you think." He drew the knife upward, cutting all the way and stopping just short of the base of her head. "Your mind is a broken thing," he murmured almost thoughtfully. "It is easy to read, easy to comprehend…"

She winced and watched as blood flowed from her arm, hateful eyes glaring at the god. "Just tell me what you're wanting and I may be able to help give it to you so we can end this needless game."

At the word "help", he openly scoffed. "I do not seek your help, nor do I need it. However… this little plan that you've managed to conjure up and so flawlessly execute thus far… I admit that it interests me."

"Wait… what? What part of my plan, and how did you even come to know about it?" she asked, more curious now than anything.

"As I said, you are woefully unprotected," the God responded, not elaborating further. Digging his knife in a bit, he then added, "Seeing every last detail of what you plan to do and have already done was far from difficult."

Astra bit her lip and clenched her fists due to the pain, her breath hitching momentarily before she managed a response. "It's about Jet, isn't it?" she suddenly guessed, wanting to end this encounter as quickly as possible.

"How astute," was the murmured reply. A second or two of silence passed before he continued. "Help is not what I am after here," he reminded her calmly, "but I do require your… cooperation."

"Cooperation in what? Do you want me involved in taking him down?" Astra ventured.

In answer, his head tilted, almost as though he was considering her words. A second later, he swung her around and pinned her to the wall by her wrist with his knife for no particularly apparent reason. "You are a curious individual," he told her softly. "Next to no one and no thing quite like you has ever managed to exist before."

She bit back a cry of pain, her frail body certainly not responding well to this sudden force. "What… do you want with me…?" she groaned, her injured arm trembling from pain.

He appeared to ignore her. "How long ago was it now that you inflicted this upon yourself?" he questioned. "This corruption, this darkness that now fills you so deeply… Have you any idea the consequences of what you have done, little girl?"

"I was young… very young…" she murmured softly, stomach churning. "And no, I don't know what you're referring to."

"Corruption so deep that it can cause even innate Light to fall entirely dormant..." he murmured, smirking faintly. "Such a thing is only barely possible… and yet you achieved it."

Her eyes widened a fraction, gulping softly. "You bastard…" she breathed, terror for once instilled onto her features. "Don't you dare…"

His smirk grew, but also darkened considerably. "I'm afraid my mind is already made, dove. But don't worry yourself too much… you will still be carrying out your little plan, regardless." He was by no means genuinely trying to comfort her, only drawing the moment out so as to further revel in her fear. A magic circle flashed into existence above the god, all of Astra's focus shifting to that before it suddenly faded and she nearly fell limp. Her little attempt didn't faze him in the slightest, but it did ensure that he ceased playing games for now. Crimson and black energies began to engulf her body, beginning the swift process of corruption.

~保護者~

4,816 words this time. I sincerely hope you all enjoyed and, as always, many thanks to Blazing Winds for his help writing this chapter and the last one! I forgot to mention it last time... oops. Anyway, I'm not certain when we'll have the next one done, but it'll be up as quickly as possible, I promise. Posted (at about 7:35 a.m.) 07-14-19.