Final Fantasy Infinite Loops
Chapter Three
Disclaimer: All of the Final Fantasy characters belong to Square Enix. The original idea for the infinite loops comes from Innortal and later codified by Saphroneth. OathtoOblivion started the Final Fantasy Loops thread and was the first compiler. I think that's every thing...Oh yes Spacebattles is who hosts the Infinite Loops threads.
-o-
3.1
Celes stared. Terra honestly couldn't blame her. If she could, she'd stare too.
"Terra," Celes said slowly, "why is your Esper form this Loop a bee?"
Terra attempted to answer her, but all that came out was a "Bzzzz!" Feeling slightly irked, she undid the Trance state to return to human form.
"I have no idea. Father is the same as ever this Loop," she admitted.
"Then why was-?"
"I don't know! ...Although, Cecil and Cloud mentioned that they were running into bees an increasingly improbable amount of times," Terra remembered.
"What, so Yggdrasil has some kind of Bee Virus or something?" Celes asked incredulously.
"What else makes sense?
-o-
3.2 [Tovath]
Leviathan burst out of the sea, but instead of swallowing their ship as he always had before, he said "Last time I ate you I got a big case of indigestion."
"Last time?" asked Firion, "Is time repeating for you?" He had been hoping to have this conversation with Maria or Guy, not a big boat eating monster.
"Yes, but I also have memories from other places. In one I was the king of the eidolons. In another I was imprisoned near a giant tree. A young woman freed me in hopes of saving her mother." He shook his head, almost capsizing the ship. "Sorry."
"Firion, what is going on?" Maria's voice quavered as she asked this.
Firion sighed "This is going to take some explaining..."
-o-
3.3 (Gamer A)
Every now and then, the loops could throw Cloud a curveball without needing to mix in other worlds. He'd woken up very late this time - to the point that Sephiroth was already defeated. A contributing factor to this was that the final confrontation had taken place a few weeks ahead of schedule.
And how had that happened? Well, the key difference was how his team hadn't left the northern crater with Shinra after Cloud gave Sephiroth the Black Materia and the WEAPONs were unleashed. Tifa, Barret, Nanaki, Cait Sith, and Cid had all plunged into the Lifestream with their compromised leader; where they watched as Cloud pieced together his mind. And then they'd all continued further into the lifestream right to Sephiroth and defeated him before being spit back out.
It was all surprisingly plausible (although Aerith had to be responsible for how the Lifestream hadn't reduced them all to comatose vegetables). But it had also left a lot of loose ends. Not just that they had skipped over recruiting Yuffie and Vincent. More importantly Shinra wasn't nearly as crippled and panicked as they should have been - although the WEAPONs might change that as they were all still active and rampaging.
"So what should we do now?" Tifa asked.
"What else?" Cloud responded, "We protect what we can, and fight who we have to."
"Fuck, gonna be a long walk back to the Tiny Bronco..." Cid commented.
-o-
3.4 [Tovath]
Cecil thought over the loop so far, as he waited in the hall. There hadn't been any major problems this loop. He had been able to take care of Zemus fairly quickly and hopefully the way he took care of the events a few months ago would make the next part of the loop easier.
But today was not the time for such thoughts. Today was a very special day. One that he would never get tired of no matter how many times it happened.
The midwife opened the door and bustled up. She was the best midwife in Baron and had picked up the ability that many healers had of being able to boss anyone, even the King, around. "Congratulations Sire, Queen Rosa has just given birth to a healthy boy."
Even though he had known that this was going to happen, he couldn't help but smile. The midwife practically pushed him through the door that she had refused to let him though moments before.
Rosa looked tired, but happy. After a few minutes he was allowed to hold his son. "Hello Ceodore."
-o-
3.5 [tovath]
Lenna had an idea of how to simplify getting use of the pirate ship at the beginning of their Loop. "We will just have to ask the pirates if we can borrow their ship," said Lenna.
"That's a crazy idea." yelled Galuf, who was not Awake.
"Quiet down," said Bartz, who she had already told him of her plan. "It's a better idea than trying to steal the thing."
Galuf continued in a lower tone, "So you are suggesting that we just waltz in there -"
"No I will go in by myself." Lenna said with a puckish grin, "You can wait here."
Lenna walked around the sleeping pirates and headed to the captain's quarters, where her unknowing sister, Faris was. The captain's quarters were quite spare, just a sea chest, a bed and an awake Faris, who had her sword drawn.
Lenna quickly pulled out her pendent and started talking before Faris started stabbing. "I was wondering if you recognized this pendent."
"Aye, I have one just like it."
"Then you are my sister." said Lenna. "Will you help me save our father?"
xxx
The pirate ship headed off to the Wind Shrine with Galuf still wondering how this had happened.
-o-
3.6 [Drakohahn]
When Kira Yamato looped into the Warring Triad Branch of Final Fantasy, it was always a toss-up to see if he replaced Terra, Celes or just entered as himself. Currently, he had replaced Celes after Kefka had disrupted the Warring Triad statues.
It really stung to come in when the only thing to do was pick up the pieces before confronting the monster who did the deed.
Well, having recently rescued Figaro Castle from where it was stuck under the sands, he and the other currently Awake Loopers of the branch made a stop at the Ancient Castle. It was mostly to release the petrified Esper, Odin. Though the native Loopers had already learned the spells he and his stronger form gave a long time ago, it didn't feel right to just leave him there; especially if he suffered the same fate as the other espers when the source of the baseline's magic was destroyed.
The brown-haired, violet-eyed man walked up and touched the cold stone that Odin had become. Memories of the day the Esper was left in that state played in Kira's head. As the memories ebbed away, the statue in front of him glowed for a moment before condensing into a bluish crystal with an orange core. It felt warm with life in the Looper's hand.
Young Warrior, a mighty voice echoed in his mind. I am the Esper, Odin. I can feel the burning strength and desire to protect within you. Call upon my power whenever you need me, Young Warrior.
"Thank you, Sir Odin," Kira expressed to the Magicite he now carried. With Odin in hand, the Looper and his friends left the underground ruins.
After leaving the ancient ruins and helping the depressed Setzer reclaim the Falcon airship he had sealed away, the team headed towards Mobliz to reunite with Terra. Of course, that means dealing with the giant demon that decided to make that wrecked town its target; Humbaba.
Normally, the entire group would have gone into the town to convince Terra to rejoin and fight Humbaba. This time, however, he convinced them to go look for the others and he'd join up with them later with the green haired half-Esper in tow. It did take some reassurances that he knew what he was doing before they left to look for some of the others.
Now, here's where a railroading glitch in the Loops came up. Humbaba was only ever chased away until Terra regained her ability to fight and joined the assault on the massive beast. When she was Awake, this was easy to do as she would likely have dealt with it by the time everyone arrived. But she currently was not Awake right now, which meant driving the giant green demon off.
Right on time, Humbaba rose from the nearby waters. It said quite a bit that, despite not being nearly as tall as the Mobile Suits he was used to, Kira found him relatively intimidating.
Was he actually scared of the huge beast? Nope, he's faced way worse than this thing, even in his baseline. Still, in the back of his mind, there was a primal urge begging him to flight from the primordial force before him. He guessed he could understand, considering the fact that he was staring down a demon many times his size.
A daunting foe to many of lesser mettle. The Esper commented in his mind. Kira wasn't sure just how much connection they had while he had the Magicite equipped, but they could talk telepathically, at least. But we can best this abomination with ease.
I take it that you want a crack at him? The Anchor asked with a grin.
Well, yes. I've been stone for a long time. I want to the chance to stretch once more, even if only in a temporary manifestation.
Kira was suddenly hit by the state of his current tagalong. This was a proud warrior Esper who was defeated by a powerful invader, only avoided becoming Magicite at the time by sheer force of will. His dying body turned to stone and the kingdom he fought for fell. Now, despite that loss, he was in the hands of someone he deemed worthy of holding onto the crystal that held his soul.
With no further words, the Anchor focused his mind to call forth the power stored within the stone he carried. His right arm came up, a ball of light forming in his palm.
"O Proud Warrior, O Master of the Blade! Upon thy steed, bring forth the storm of metal that ushers the end of life!"
The sphere leaped up higher into the air, rapidly expanding until it was far bigger than Kira. Said summoner's violet eyes held firm on the green-scaled giant before him as the rising orb burst in a brilliant flash of light. A humanoid figure riding a six-legged white and gold horse flew out of the brightness, wearing white and gold armor with a mighty scimitar in one han, a circular shield in the other and a black cloak billowing out behind him. Upon his head, a golden helmet mounted with the horns of an elk.
"DEMON! Prepare thyself for oblivion!"
-o-
3.7 [Facepalmist]
Cloud stepped through the door of 7th Heaven, and was immediately assaulted by two eager females.
"Papa!" Marlene called out.
...Well, one eager female. This was the Sector Seven iteration of Tifa's 7th Heaven, and Cloud was merely a mercenary who'd drifted a little ahead of the others on their way back to AVALANCHE's hideout - so Marlene was understandably much more looking forward to her papa's return than to greeting the faux SOLDIER.
"Cloud!"
Tifa herself being in that much of a panic, though... that was new. Intrigued, Cloud let himself be dragged behind the bar.
"Okay Cloud, you have to listen to me," Tifa urgently whispered in his ear. "I know what happened to you in Nibelheim, why you don't remember anything after you attacked Sephiroth..."
Barret came in and greeted his adoptive daughter, and the other three were called in to participate in the standard post-terrorism meeting. Cloud and Tifa were called in too, but Cloud was far too busy listening to his childhood friend as she spun a fanciful, muddled tale about a SOLDIER named Zack Fair who was Cloud's mentor, Shinra experiments that had caused Cloud to mix his memories up with Zack's, Sephiroth's 'mother' Jenova actually being an alien that killed off all the Cetra and wanted to kill everyone else by dropping a meteor on the Planet, and "...you don't believe me, do you."
Cloud stared at Tifa, considering her tale of a past and future that no-one the least bit sane could have believed...and wondering just when she'd Woken up to be so rattled. Then he grinned.
"Actually I'm way ahead of you." And so he went to spin his own tall-tale of a trio of genetically altered men - one of whom wanted to eat Cloud's hair, another trio of genetically altered boys - one of whom liked to, ahem, play with Tifa (as Cloud told Tifa with a lecherous wiggling of his eyebrows), and a trio of demons crammed into a three-decades 'dead' Turk - and the WEAPON Sephiroth's real mother had then crammed on top of them.
Tifa stared at Cloud, with her eyebrow raised. During his tale she'd passed through flabbergasted, lingering on unimpressed (at the innuendo regarding Loz), and settling on expectant.
"So, is this the first time you've woken up in the past?"
Tifa paused. "...first time?"
Cloud shrugged. "Yeah, I've done that a few hundred times already." Then he stepped over and pulled Tifa into a hug. "But I'm glad someone's finally with me. And I'm glad it's you."
-o-
3.8 [Facepalmist]
"Fire..."
The Bite Bug burst into flames, weak flames but still flames. A victorious smile flashed across Squall's face as he darted in to strike the monster down.
'That settles it. It must have been a pure Variant. Which means that method is viable.'
Very occasionally, when universal time habitually reset - as opposed to when time compression reset, which was a major difference between the two phenomena - Squall found himself in timelines which were jarringly different to the usual flow of events. Squall's last time loop had been such a case, placing him not within Balamb Garden training as a SeeD, but as a run-of-the-mill recruit of the Galbadian Army - six years before the invasion of Dollet, no less. Even stranger, there was a younger version of Squall (or whatever the term was, given that the time-travelling Squall's name and looks were completely different) living and training as per the baseline.
Squall's gut reaction had been to just desert and head for somewhere else. But having crammed that impulse down in order to plan his desertion, it had occurred to him that perhaps this was an opportunity... but not to fight for the G-Army, though. He'd heard enough about the G-Army not to stay in it any longer than necessary. That said, there were certain subjects taught to G-Army recruits that weren't exactly covered so well in Garden.
The major one was taking the time to train in para-magic, the way the G-Army taught it. Namely, drawing and casting it without the double-edged swords known as Guardian Forces to act as a shortcut. And then...
Two more Bite Bugs approached. This time Squall concentrated on the intimately familiar feeling of another spell being cast.
"Blizzard." The targeted monster buzzed in pain as the customary cloud of tiny, sharp ice shards dug into its thin carapace. If anything it was even weaker than the fire spell. But nonetheless, the proof was there.
...And then, after spending two years in the G-Army learning anything which was offered, he'd deserted as per his original plan, changed his name (though not to Squall Leonhart, for one reason which would become obvious in four years) and signed up as an instructor in Trabia Garden to teach para-magic. While watching an even tinier Selphie Tilmitt running around had admittedly been entertaining and somewhat nostalgic, 'Leon Crest' (no real reason, it just came to him) had spent the next several years of his downtime pursuing a concept which had bugged him ever since that one training module had caused him to think about it.
G-Army troops could cast para-magic. G-Army troops could draw magic. They could do these things without G.F., with the right training. And para-magic was a pretty new concept, like two decades old - less back when he'd finished the aforementioned training.
If they could draw magic, and they could cast drawn magic, might it be possible to cast magic that hadn't been drawn?
Such a concept flew in the face of established para-magic theory, true - but what if Odine had simply never got round to testing it that far? Logically, in order to mimic drawn para-magic spells one would have to be extremely familiar with the magic in question - but then, if there was one person on the planet who could claim that, it would be Squall. And so following four years of teaching, private study and experimentation, and helping rebuild Trabia Garden after cruise missiles inexplicably landed on it, Squall had taken advantage of the latest time-reset to ditch Quistis after the Fire Cavern test to test out his new and potentially game-changing trick.
The Fire spell had been draw-cast from the Bite Bug - more to make certain the Galbadian-taught method worked. But the Blizzard spell? Well, that one just came out of thin air.
Squall cut down the first Bite Bug, then put more effort behind another Blizzard spell. This time it was about the same magnitude of the draw-cast Fire spell - thus proving that the effect could be improved with focus, effort and practice. True, he was feeling more than a little drained even after casting just those two spells, but the same regimen for improvement of his innate reserves was highly likely to apply.
In other words: the time would hopefully soon come when he could cast magic irrespective of whether he'd drawn any to that point in the timeline. Needless to say, such a skill would be invaluable on many levels. Squall turned back for Garden and his dorm to change for today's field test, a satisfied smile lingering on his face for much of the return trip.
-o-
3.9 [Slayst]
When it wasn't plainly trolling the loopers, Yggdrasil worked in mysterious ways.
Boitatá was learning it once again, as he watched his branch gain yet another looper without any input on his part.
He was thankful though, as the name displayed on his screen was a lot less problematic than that Nox character.
But seriously, Yggdrasil had the strangest of ideas for fused-loops.
As per baseline, Yuna had escaped her wedding to Seymour Guado, thanks to her summon Valefor, and immediately made her way to Bevelle's Temple. Reaching the fayth chamber wasn't a challenge anymore for the Anchor, and she'd done so in record time, ultimately convincing the local Eon to help her on her quest.
Bahamut, the mighty King of Dragons!
Or at least, it should have been. The thing in its place wasn't quite as intimidating, nor really dragony.
As he/it hadn't replied to her ping, she honestly didn't know if this 'Az, King of Tofus' was a looper, or simply a strange variant, but its power was pretty much baseline-Bahamut level and as such, most welcome anyway.
Plus, seeing such a small bird power a Mega Flare and blast Isaaru's summon to kingdom come had been rather funny.
Boitatá sighed.
His branch would be that much more strange with a draconic tofu capable of using nuclear fusion blasts, and he could already see the pile of paperwork coming his way.
-o-
3.10 [Facepalmist]
Tidus blinked, and shivered, and found himself looking down at hands that shimmered like water. And standing on metal plating that had been spraycoated white, instead of the flamboyant paint job of the Celsius where he and Yuna had been canoodling not five seconds ago. And finding his head full of memories that told him he'd spent a blurry, indeterminate time in the Farplane before the Fayth had brought him back to Spira two years later.
He looked up, and saw Yuna standing there in her pilgrimage outfit. Oh, and the other guardians bar Auron standing around him, but it was Yuna that caught his attention. Her expression was downcast, but there was a fatalism there that rang false against what he remembered. The word "no" didn't whisper through her lips, the head didn't shake. There was an acceptance in that gaze there that wasn't there two years ago...
...and now another part of his head was rallying in denial, insisting that not five seconds ago he'd been watching her perform the fatal, final sending as some indefinable part of him fled with the fayth.
"Yuna..." I have to go. The dream was over. His time was done-
Tidus stopped, finding himself flatfooted, unable to say the words.
Was it really? argued his...future memories, the ones that told him he had already said the words. The ones that told him he was real, that Yuna had believed it too. The ones that told Tidus that if he left, he would just be back in a couple years... And, he realized with a start, the ones that told him that Yuna was being much calmer about this than he remembered her being. It was like... like she knew what was going to happen. Like she remembered what was going to happen!
His mind raced, scrambling for something to prove she remembered...whatever all that was too.
"Cherish me, Yuna." His voice was trembling, with desperation and with hope. "And I'll cherish you. All right?"
And even before he finished saying her name, Tidus saw the way her expression changed. The wide eyes filling with realization and tears that hadn't been there before. The shaking hand rising to cover her mouth as her jaw dropped. And then Yuna started sprinting towards him... only to stop just a foot away and start inspecting his face as if searching for something there. Maybe she was afraid of ploughing through him like she had last time (last time! he'd gone back in time, him and Yuna!). Or maybe she didn't think-
"Are you real?" Yuna begged.
-that he was real. That he was still a dream, that he might still disappear. He looked back down at his hands, still rippling in and out of solid existence...
"Uhhh, hello?" Rikku interjected from where the others were standing. "If you're not real, then who are we all looking at?"
...The shimmering effect stopped with a decisive flash as Tidus facepalmed.
"Man. You're a real idiot, aren't ya?" Wakka added. The real, foolish-feeling blitzballer found himself trying not to nod in rueful agreement.
"You think, so you are," rumbled Kimahri. "Start thinking."
Lulu threw her arms out, papering over her relief with exasperation. "Really, what were you thinking, scaring us all like that?"
By that point Tidus really didn't care, because now Yuna was in his arms and attempting to squeeze him in half. And not falling through him, which was a big plus.
"So..." he wheezed into her ear. "You remember that too, huh? Do you know what's going on?"
Yuna chuckled wetly into his shoulder. "Well... that's a long story."
-o-
3.11 [Facepalmist]
Cloud entered his current abode, tossing his riding gloves on the bureau just inside the entrance. Hearing a somewhat familiar tune coming from the living room, the on-call courier walked over and stopped in the doorway.
His housemate for the loop was staring at the TV, his eyebrow twitching and a Playstation controller gripped in his hands. Cloud glanced at the TV screen and winced. 'Had to happen sooner or later...'
"Wall Market?" Cloud stated more than asked.
"Wall Market," Sephiroth confirmed. "On occasion, your life can truly be ridiculous..."
Cloud shrugged. It was hard to argue.
-o-
3.12 (Fan Of Most Everything)
The Roil was, to put it plainly, a bitch. If what the "guest Loopers" had been telling her was true, then Chandra would appreciate something truly random after a few million Loops. As it was, she just wanted to get to the Eye of Ugin safely and easily, and Zendikar's constantly, violently reshaping landscape was making that a pain in the ass.
Still, at least she was able to keep two or three Gurgel brothers alive consistently. There was something endearing about the hapless would-be guides, and keeping goblins alive on Zendikar was a great way for Chandra to practice thinking on her feet.
That's what she thought as she entered Affa Town. When she opened the door to the expeditionary house, she grudgingly decided to change her mind. After all, the best way to keep the brothers alive was not to take them. The eight-foot tall, grey-skinned man wearing armor that wouldn't look out of place on Kamigawa looked like he could take care of himself.
Apparently, he thought something similar. At least, that was probably what the toothy grin and the boisterous shout meant. "Hail, fellow adventurer!" And that.
Sachir, the scarred proprietor of the ally-for-hire shop, grumbled resignedly. The new guy just didn't get it. Well, maybe he'd go get himself killed watching out for this slip of a girl.
Much to Sachir's disgust, Chandra negotiated a very nice deal with the huge man without the use of a middleman. Soon, the two of them were making their way through the spike fields.
"You're a planeswalker, and you're not even from the local Multiverse?" Chandra shot a warning flare at one rocky extrusion and was rewarded with a flinty clicking that quickly grew more distant. "Damn rock lizards. How's that even work?"
"Well," said the huge, cheerful man (who wasn't a giant. Chandra had known giants. She had nearly been stepped on by giants more times than she could count. The man was tall, but he was not a giant.) "I imagine when a rock and a lizard—"
"The other thing," Chandra said quickly. Not fast enough to keep her from picturing it, though. Damn it, Jace only wiped her nastier memories in exchange for favors.
"Oh, yes. Well, in my baseline, I was banished to the Interdimensional Void, and from there wandered from universe to universe. The Void's not as active as your Blind Eternities, but it's the same basic principle."
"Huh." That... kind of explained things? Maybe? "So, Gilgamesh, how are you liking this corner of the Multiverse?"
"Well, there doesn't seem to be an Excalibur, but that means there's no Excalipoor either, which is always nice. And I have found some fascinating weapons for my subspace pocket: zombifying scythe, demon sealed in a butter knife, katana that's also a dragon, even a spare hammer from a forge god. Nice guy." He briefly produced each weapon as he named it, ending with the hammer. Chandra swore there were stars twinkling in there.
She then considered how much time had passed since the start of the Loop. "And you've done all that in a few months."
Gilgamesh shrugged. "No time like the present. Especially when you're not sure how long the Loop lasts. Hey, watch this!" He slammed the hammer down, and the spike fields crumbled. The shards of rock coalesced together to form a humanoid figure with a head of gold and stars in its shadows. Gilgamesh patted the golem on the head. "Pretty neat, huh?"
The ground began to shake as though in response. "Real neat!" Chandra shouted as she went prone. "I think you just triggered a Roil tide!"
"Hmm. That doesn't sound neat at all..."
-o-
3.13 [Facepalmist]
The X-ATM092 slumped in the courtyard outside the communication tower, its repair routines already beginning. Squall stepped back, his Renzokuken Limit Break having done the job for now... But not for long, as Zell and Selphie had also noticed.
"Let's get out of here!" Zell called to the others.
Squall, though, had other ideas this time. "Selphie."
"Yeah, Squall?" the Trabian transfer replied.
The gunblade-wielder, who had de facto command by virtue of the others not questioning it, leaped onto the giant mechanical spider's carapace and used his weapon to hack away a panel. "Think you can hack this thing?"
Selphie shrugged. "I can give it a try!"
As she jumped up to work at the small console Squall had uncovered, he carefully stepped over and lopped off a small protruding section at the back. "That should take care of the remote control..." he muttered, tucking it in his inventory.
Manning the gunship's mini-gun turret, Quistis zeroed in on the spider-like Galbadian war-mech approaching...
...Only to stop and gape as Squall, Zell and a messenger from Squad A came into view on the top of it. The messenger, one Selphie Tilmitt if she remembered correctly, appeared to be steering the mech somehow if her hands being hidden in its innards meant anything. Zell was crab-walking back and forth, inspecting the legs as they moved. And Squall stood dead-centre in the middle of the carapace, keeping watch for threats. He raised his gunblade in a salute to the Instructor as she looked in his direction.
Quistis shook herself. Squall had just earlier today informed her and Headmaster Cid that he was stuck in some sort of time repeat, even providing a small measure of proof though it was only the Headmaster who seemed to comprehend its importance. As such, it was to be expected that Squall would already have plans in place to deal with standard threats like that war-mech probably was. He had promised a more in-depth briefing tonight, once a few other key people had been gathered. If this was a measure of this new Squall's professionalism, Quistis found herself becoming increasingly intrigued as to what was in store.
The X-ATM092 slowed and came to a stop before the gunship's ramp. Selphie tapped a final command into the console as they all jumped off. In response, the Galbadian mech began to shrink and fold in on itself until it took the appearance of a compact bundle the size of a satchel charge. Squall picked it up and tossed it in Selphie's direction. "Spoils of battle. You hacked it, you keep it."
"Tee-hee, thanks Squall!" the messenger crowed as they piled into the ship. Quistis huffed a sigh of relief and joined them.
It was a little later, once things had mostly calmed down, that Squall discreetly leaned over and muttered, "Oh, and next time I do that? I'm giving Selphie a cowboy hat. Then having her ride that think through Dollet like it's a bucking bronco. And filming it."
Quistis stared at him. "...Why?"
Squall shrugged. "To show Irvine later."
"Who?"
-o-
3.14 [Yu Narukaze]
'Error: Primary Anchor candidate nonviable. Commencing Loop attempt with secondary Anchor candidate'
Odin looked at the message on his console with a raised eyebrow. For some reason, the primary Anchor candidate for one of his assigned branches, Tiz Arrior, was incapable of acting as Anchor. The description for the error stated it was due to the fact that Tiz should not have survived in his Loop's baseline, but complicated circumstances brought him back. This would make him nonviable, so Yggdrasil automatically selected the secondary candidate, Agnés Oblige.
Agnés sighed. 'Again? Why does this keep happening?'
This was the... she didn't even know how many times she had gone through this. Every time she, Tiz, and the others beat Ouroboros, she always found herself in the beginning, when she was at the top of the Great Chasm and met Tiz.
The first time, she tried to kill Airy on sight. Of course, she lost, due to the fact that she lost all her abilities when she came back. She deduced it was because she no longer had the Asterisks when she returned.
Then, she went right back to the beginning.
What was happening to her? Whatever it was, it was unacceptable for things to continue this way. However, she had no idea what to do.
Then she found someone else instead of Tiz. '...What?' This was... different. Instead of Tiz, there was a blond-haired man who introduced himself as Cloud.
When they walked out and she saw Airy, she had to resist her anger once again, or be sent back by losing, again.
However, the man seemed to see her anger before she forced it down. Later, when they went to the Inn in Caldisa, he asked her a simple question.
"Has time seemed to be...looping, for you?" When Agnés nodded, he sighed. "Joy. Guess I'll have to give you the Talk."
And before she could ask him what it was about-because she was quite aware of how relationships worked, thank you very much-he proceeded to awe her with what he called the Welcome to the Multiverse speech. She was glad Tiz and the others would most likely join her in these... "Loops." She had no idea when, but she hoped it would be soon.