AYUTA AND SHEA
"You know, even though I understand Escher and Musiea couldn't make it last year, I still think this feels awkward. I mean, no one usually celebrates the eleventh anniversary of something," Ayuta mused. The previous year, Escher and Musiea were temporarily unable to travel outside of their kingdom due to an outbreak of some horrible bacterial disease. Luckily it was minor and ended rather quickly, but their government didn't want to take any chances.
"Well, better late than never!", Shea simply said. "You can think of this as making up for the tenth anniversary that never was."
"Hmmm…I just hope Theia will be okay. The babysitters we ended up hiring seem a bit…eccentric."
"I know what you mean," Shea sighed. "But Garrick and Alto were the only ones available and they helped take care of war orphans, including some babies."
Garrick and Alto somehow ended up being restored back on Earth when the parallel timespaces the couples all came from merged. Maybe since they weren't summoned in Olgar and Vahti's tournament, they were able to remain when the timespaces merged, but who knows. After a successful campaign, the two knights then took up mercenary work, as well as caring for people whose lives had been ravaged by war, including war orphans. Garrick turned out to have quite the ego, and Alto turned out to be quite the simp (for Garrick). Both were boisterous and, frankly, dumb (when they visited a menagerie with Ayuta, they somehow mistook a lion for a dog, which flabbergasted him). But their heart was in the right place, so Shea found it fit to hire them to babysit.
"Overall, I think Theia is in good hands." Ayuta and Shea have been happily married for several years. Ayuta especially looks back on their marriage as the best day out of his entire tens-of-millions-of-years life. The real Princess Mana even made a surprise appearance at their wedding (as thanks to Shea for her time as one of her body doubles), a gesture the couple was honored by. Three years ago, Ayuta and Shea also had a baby girl, who Shea took the chance to name after Ayuta's original partner.
Soon enough, the ship the two were boarding finally reached Atlantior. It didn't take long to find who they came for.
ESCHER AND MUSIEA
Musiea let out a prolonged and deliberately exaggerated gasp upon seeing Shea in-person for the first time in over a decade. The two women ran towards and embraced each other. Escher just let out a "Sup?" to Ayuta, who just made an upward nod. Though they seemed less "sentimental", in truth both men were just as happy to see each other as their wives were, and the two soon came in for one of those arm wrestle handshakes. Ayuta soon noticed a young boy standing close to Escher. He had dark skin, but it wasn't quite as dark as Escher's. He also had Escher's hair. No doubt he was his son. "Hello there," Ayuta warmly greeted.
"Ah, I see you took notice of the little rascal," Escher said. "Ayuta, this is Mars."
"Mars, huh? And how old are you Mars?"
"I'm five," the little boy replied.
"I see." From Ayuta's perspective, Escher and Musiea seemed to have a solid relationship as lovers. So when he communicated via Escher some time after the Ark Arena, he was surprised to learn that
"You know Escher, Ayuta and I have had our own child," Shea interjected. "Her name's Theia, and she's three. I almost wish we could have brought her here, but I have faith in her sitters."
"Even if they are a bit weird," Ayuta added. "Garrick and Alto are quite the…unusual ones…"
"Huh? Garrick and Alto?!", Musiea asked. "They died in the timeline Escher and I were from. I saw Garrick get killed by the Executioner."
"Me too," Ayuta added.
"Me three," a female voice said from behind. Everyone turned to the source of the voice. It was none other than Eluca, with Zhamo by her side. Both were now dressed in more royal garb, but had pieces of armor on their shoulders, elbows, forearms, knees, and shins. Both also wore crowns. Zhamo now had a thin horizontal scar running below his left eye where his cheekbone is (which he received from his battles against the Divine King and his forces). Zhamo had grown a noticeable amount and even had some more muscle than he did 11 years ago. Eluca looked even stronger than she did back then too. But despite how far the two have now come, they both greeted their old friends with a warm smile.
"Well I'll be…", Escher said. "Eluca, Zhamo. How's the dream kingdom coming along?"
"It's gone great!" Zhamo replied. "The old Divine King is long gone, and since then we've been putting everything in our power to rebuild our kingdom for the better."
"Wealth isn't nearly as unevenly as distributed as before, education is more widespread than it's ever been, and we've gotten rid of some of the really cruel punishments that were in place. Of course, there's still much work to be done, but I feel like we've made great progress," Eluca elaborated.
"You certainly look a lot more like a warrior now Zhamo," Ayuta said upon noticing the scar on Zhamo's face and the look in his eyes. If you had all the strength, knowledge, and experience on the Ark that you have now, I think you could have beaten us all."
"I agree…", said the voice of an old man. Everyone turned, surprised once more. It was none other than Olgar and Vahti themselves. "I can see it in your eyes and face now, Zhamo. If there were any lingering doubts about you becoming a true warrior, they are quashed now. I'm proud of both of you."
"Ha ha, well, I'm sure we have all grown in these past several years," Zhamo said. Despite being a king, he was a humble one.
"Say, now that we're all here, how 'bout some fun time!?" Escher suggested. "I heard you can jet ski here! What do you say Mars?"
"YEAAAAHHHH!", the little boy yelled out.
"But no skydiving! You're still way too young for that!" Musiea quickly added.
"Ah, I'm still looking forward to today! Heh heh heh…I'm so disappointed…", Mars said, trailing off in a more tame tone.
"Skydiving, eh?" Olgar said. "Of all my years living, I don't think we have ever done something like that, have we Vahti?".
"No, I don't think so. It will be a new experience. I'm looking forward to it," Vahti said.
"As am I. Well, then. Let's get started!", Olgar declared.
And that's a wrap for chapter 2. Get ready for chapter 3…because that's when things take a turn for the worse.
A couple notes: first, I just decided to put in Garrick and Alto here because…maybe it's not so crazy after all? I mean, if they didn't even show up in one of the four playable timelines (Olgar and Vahti's), maybe there's a chance that they could still be alive when all of their spacetimes diverge? I also realize that there's a stark contrast in their personalities in the original Chaos Rings and the prequel and sequel (Omega and 2, respectively). They're pretty chill and down-to-Earth in the original game, but egotistical, hammy, simp-ish (that's not even a word, I know), and just all-around more annoying. So I went with a middle ground here. Still a bunch of goofballs, but well-meaning ones.
Second, the official guidebook that was part of the limited edition of Chaos Rings III for PS Vita gives us the actual ages of the characters from the Chaos Rings series. Chaos Rings Omega actually gives us the ages of two characters; Dante is 43, while Vieg is 29. I used this information to get an idea of what their family structure would realistically be like 11 years after defeating the Qualia. Below are the official ages of the characters, and what their ages would be at the time of this fic in parentheses.
Escher: 26 (37 here)
Musiea: 21 (32 here)
Eluca: 23 (34 here)
Zhamo: 16 (27 here)
Ayuta: biologically 18 (biologically 29 here) (actually millions of years old)
Shea: 19 (30 here)
Olgar: looks to be 60, actually 10,029 (29 in Omega) (10,040 here)
Vahti: looks to be 30, actually 10,018 (18 in Omega) (10,029 here)
