Smaller, More Honest Souls: Arc of Redemption

by MasterCaedus

Jaune Arc would have done anything to get back the woman he loved. And he did do anything; he did everything and it still wasn't enough. He lost his way, and could only find it for the sake of his friends and family. Now he has a chance to fix everything: Sora & Oz send Jaune with Yang to find her mother's Nobody and protect the worlds. But even a past you confront can haunt you.

14. Dark Ghosts

AN: Wow, this one's more than 2000 words longer than usual! That's one reason it took so long, and another is that the site's doc submission wouldn't work for a few days after I had finished this. So, how is everybody? Enjoying yourselves? How about that SuperBowl? Jeez, I was rooting for the Pats but that was easily the best SuperBowl in years! Two actually good teams playing their best!

Anyways, time to do some responses!

To Gamelover41592: I'm glad you liked Jaune's sisters! Also, Genie will show up in this chapter at the end again. It'll be a more serious moment, so less of his shape shifting and jokes and more of his 'during the fight with Jafar' attitude from the movie.

To GuestWithIdeas: Yeah, don't worry. OJ isn't going after Truth, it's more like... It's a door to other places. He wants to know if anything about Truth can help him figure out how to get to the Realm of Darkness more than anything else. He knows bringing someone back to life is stupid, especially when it's someone else's Pyrrha that he'd bring back. And you're right about Yang and Jaune needing some help. They're already a bit beyond Ozpin's range to stop them, but everything will come to light eventually. And when it does, that's when the real story begins.

Well, enjoy! I hope you like this chapter and that I do as well with SAO:Abridged as I did last time!

Chapter 14: Dark Ghosts

"Aincrad sure has changed a lot," Jaune muttered as he and Yang walked down a dirt path towards the nearest town, staring up at the blue sky and over at the rolling green hills. Whereas last time they had visited, Aincrad had been a land ravaged, the buildings distinctly like those of the temple that they had once obtained chess pieces from for Beacon's induction ceremony, this land looked more like a small village area that was far more modern. It reminded Jaune of the farmland his family would vacation at in Mistral when he was young, calm and sleepy. Best of all, there were no Heartless around. He passed a white picket fence. "It's really nice, now."

"I'm bored..." Yang grumbled beside him, Ember Celica useless in its inactive state on her wrists. He glanced over and shook his head when he saw her drooping eyes and slumped shoulders. "Boooooooooooooooooorrrring..."

"Don't worry. OJ said they're planning something big, right? Then we'll get a chance to punch some monsters," Jaune said in an effort to brighten the woman's mood. "Maybe we'll even get to do something else crazy, like chase someone across a rooftop!"

Yang straightened up slightly. "Well... Okay. You're right! We always get in fights when we go anywhere!" she said, growing taller and more excited with every word. She pumped her fist above her and grinned. "And maybe we'll even get to see Kirito and Asuna again!"

Jaune grimaced. "Ugh... Please no," he muttered sadly. He rubbed the bridge of his nose as they continued to walk. "If we run into him again we'll just get called 'Dumb and Dumber' and he'll act like a jerk the entire time. Can't we just hope we never see him ever again?"

"Apparently not." Yang let her fist fall and one finger point out into the field. Jaune groaned and followed her finger, catching sight of the black coat before he heard the high pitched, evil giggling of Kirito. Jaune groaned and walked up first, deciding it would be best to get this over with.

"Kirito," he grumbled in greeting.

"AH! I'M NOT DOING ANYTHING!" Kirito snapped, his hand shooting up from the ground, a marker flying from his grasp and soaring through the air. Jaune watched it go for a moment before looking down at what Kirito had been drawing on. "Dumber? What are you doing here?"

"Is that... Asuna?" Jaune asked, examining the sleeping young woman drooling in the grass. She had a large black circled colored around one eye. Kirito had been in then process of finishing up six whiskers on her cheeks when Jaune had interrupted and caused the line to move jagged and unevenly up her temple.

"I missed your idiotic jokes, Dumber," Kirito noted. He stood up straight and rolled his eyes at Jaune. "So, did you show up after more than a year just to ask stupid questions?"

"Mainly," Yang said, moving up to stand beside Jaune. She looked down at Asuna and grinned, shooting a robotic thumbs up towards Kirito. "Classic."

"Right? Sup, Dumb?" he asked, waving.

"Nothing much, Ladyboy," Yang retorted with a grin.

"Are you making fun of my voice..?" Kirito growled.

Yang smirked. "Am I?"

Kirito opened his mouth to yell, but deflated. "There's no way for me to answer that and win, is there?" he asked sullenly.

Jaune shook his head. "That's how she fights," he said, downtrodden. He walked over to the low stone wall and sat atop it. "Overwhelming, unstoppable force."

"That's me!" Yang said with a grin. She plopped down next to Jaune and threw her arm around his shoulders.

Kirito rolled his eyes and sat down on Jaune's other side, looking the opposite direction of the others. "You know, I was happy you two weren't around."

"I'm sure," Jaune said honestly.

"I'm sure," Yang said sarcastically.

Kirito shook his head. "You're both somehow worse than I remember," he muttered, severely disappointed. He couldn't help a small smile growing on his face, though. "Still, at least now there are four players total that aren't worthless in this game."

"I count five. Weird." The group turned to look at the newcomers, and their appearance surprised Yang and Jaune. Mercury and Emerald were walking towards them, the gray haired young man sneering at Kirito. He stopped when he recognized Jaune and Yang. "Uh – Hey, Blondies."

"Mercury and Emerald?" Yang asked in disbelief. She placed her hands behind her head, a stance their entire group had absorbed from being around Sora, and grinned. "What are the odds?"

"Pretty low. All those – er, levels and we just happen to run into each other after so little time?" Emerald admitted. She looked over at Kirito. "But you! – You we should've seen this morning!"

"Wh – Oh, the boss raid!" Kirito snapped his fingers as it came to him. "Yeah, I power leveled my alchemy by eating some weird mushrooms after I walked in on you two all..." Kirito made overly-graphic kissing noises. "Oh, Edgelord, Oh, Greenie!"

"Ew," Yang noted simply. She looked over at Emerald and Mercury. "You two couldn't lock the door?"

"You did shrooms instead of showing up!?" Mercury snapped, advancing on Kirito. He shoved the black haired warrior off of the stone wall. Kirito yelped as he toppled and slammed into the grass. Mercury opened his mouth to shout again before shutting it and thinking his words through again. He spoke much calmer, now. "Five more people died, you asshole."

"And me alone could have saved them?" Kirito asked dryly from the ground. He stood up and brushed his arms off. "If people couldn't keep themselves safe without me there, they probably were stupid enough to do that whole 'group up and hit it till its dead' thing again."

Mercury's eyes widened and his face grew in rage he could not control. "You – Agh!" He snapped, leaping over the wall and tackling the swordsman to the ground, fist colliding with his face.

Jaune and Yang turned to Emerald, who was watching disinterestedly. She glanced between them and shrugged. "What do you want from me? The jerk deserves it."

"Probably true," Jaune pointed out when he cast his mind back to his last encounter with Kirito.

Yang shot him a glare but he simply shrugged in response. "Still," Yang said angrily, turning her eyes back to Emerald. "This jerk helped save our lives at least once. We owe him."

Emerald glanced over at Mercury and saw that the two were locked in a pitched battle for dominance, slamming fists into each other's faces in a way that – because of the nature of this world – didn't actually hurt anyone. "Ugh... fine." She walked over to the stone wall and leaned over. "Merc, could you let him go?"

By this point, Mercury had successfully placed the other warrior's foot behind his own head and yanking the opposite arm up to the leg. The gray haired fighter glanced down. "No." He started yanking harder and Kirito actually yelped in surprise and pain as his fingers touched his toes. "Imma kill him."

"Please don't," Jaune asked simply. He grit his teeth, not wanting to admit it, but he did anyways. "No one likes him, but he's... he's slightly less bad once you get to know him."

"Hey – OW!" Kirito started to protest, only to have his arm and leg yanked again.

Mercury sighed and looked over at Emerald again. After a moment of meeting her eyes, he let go of Kirito and took a step back. "Fine. There."

"Jerk..." Kirito muttered, rubbing his shoulder and grimacing at the speedy warrior.

"Wagh!" the group turned to look towards the source of the cry, and Emerald and Mercury immediately began laughing.

"Huh – I – What did you do!?" Asuna's eyes focused directly on Kirito, fire that was almost real flying from her eyes. She jumped to her feet and grabbed her sword. "Are they laughing at me because you took my clothes off?"

"You think I'm a creep!?" Kirito snapped defensively. "Who am I, a Hollywood producer? I just drew on your face because I thought it'd be funny and it was!" He pointed at her. "So funny!"

Asuna looked down at herself, noticing she still had her armor, then looked back up at Kirito. She glanced around and looked at Yang and Jaune. "Is that it?"

"I hate him, and I'll be the first to admit he only did what he said he did," Jaune said, waving his hand. "And to prove it to you, I have so much temptation to lie. If I did, you would kill him and I'd never see him again."

"It's so nice to have friends," Kirito muttered, tossing a dry glance towards the blonde. Jaune just shrugged nonchalantly, so he just turned back to Asuna. "Still, is that good enough for you? I'm not that much of a lowlife?"

Mercury crossed his arms and looked away from Kirito. "I'm honestly surprised," Mercury mumbled.

Kirito's eye twitched and he glared at Mercury. "Wanna say that to my face, you ripoff of a Sonic OC?!"

"Oh, this is constructive..." Emerald sighed. She placed one hand over her eyes and shook her head. "So constructive."

Asuna sighed. "You know what? I'm hungry," she said. She sheathed her blade. "I'll treat everybody to a meal." Yang and Jaune flinched and felt a shiver of terror run down their spines at the hungry look in her eyes. "And you can tell me about that magic stuff..."

S M H S

"Ah, Restaurant. The finest cuisine in all of Aincrad," Kirito said, a mocking smirk on his face as he waited to get a rise out of Asuna. He tented his hands and leaned forward, the smirk growing ever wider as her annoyance became more obvious.

"Oh my God," she snapped, eyes shut and mouth covered to try and keep her words quiet enough no one else in the restaurant would hear her. It didn't work. "Are you really going to complain about a free meal!?"

"Don't ruin this for us!" Jaune and Yang hissed at him, their fists clenching around their forks and knives as they awaited their food. Free food was immeasurably better than normal food, after all.

Emerald rolled her eyes, but had to admit she agreed with their sentiment. Other than simply trying to survive, she wasn't too proud to admit she was a thief for one reason. Free stuff is better than normal stuff, to her. "Complaining? Him? And here I thought he never whined," she said. She leaned on the table and appreciated the angry snarl that Kirito had shot her.

"I'll give him something to whine about," Mercury hissed just as Kirito was about to snark back to Emerald.

The swordsman turned his attention instead to Mercury. "Oh, what is your problem? Someone make you shit pie, Hilly?"

"If that's what you call an idiot abandoning us and getting five more people killed!" Mercury growled, jamming his finger into Kirito's face as he did.

"Since when would he care?" Yang wondered aloud. She shook her head at the looks she received. "Well, Mercury's... got a low valuation of human life."

"Not 'low,'" Mercury disagreed, leaning back into his chair and crossing his arms. "I just disagree that some individuals should be called human. Specifically him. Definitely him." His thumb gestured at Kirito. "Besides, it's gone up since... what you're referring to. I mean, I won't cry if someone dies, but..."

"So you do know each other," Asuna muttered. She leaned back in her seat and bit her cheek for a moment, pitiless eyes examining the four warriors who so obviously did not fit in on Aincrad. She put on a falsely cheery smile. "So, how do you two know Jaune and Yang? I'm sure that's a story we'd all want to hear!"

Kirito groaned and let his head slam into the table. "Do we have to?" He sat up again and glared at Asuna. "Really?"

"Shut up and let me listen!" Asuna snapped back, her hand snatching up her table knife. The metal blade glowed a bright orange for a moment just before she shot it forward.

"I'm sorry!" Kirito shrieked, throwing his hands up and shutting his eyes. He opened them a moment later to find that the knife was just a few centimeters from his eye.

"Be. Quiet," Asuna commanded in an overly saccharine voice. Kirito made a scared, screeching noise in the affirmative, though he didn't dare move until Asuna had taken the knife away from his face. She did after a few tense moments, immediately sitting down and and looking over at the others as if nothing had happened. "Well?"

Jaune felt his jaw lock up out of fear. Asuna was, to put it lightly, completely insane. Thankfully, Yang and Emerald decided to take this one for him and Mercury, who was still glaring almost physical daggers at Kirito. "We actually met at an exchange program at school. Mercury and I were with the sister school for the Blondes."

Kirito looked over at Emerald. "Wait, you guys are friends with each other in the real world?" he asked, somewhat deflated by this news. He shook his head and the cocky grin reappeared on his face. "What, you didn't want to make a guild made entirely of idiots?"

Jaune glared at Kirito, disappointment evident in his eyes. "Friends is a strong word," he said after a solid thirty seconds of glaring. He looked back at Emerald and Mercury and thought of what they'd done. "We actually tried to kill each other when we first met."

"You mean figuratively... right?" Kirito asked, his voice tinged with worry for his own safety.

"Duh!" Yang shouted, purposefully throwing her fist into Jaune's head as she shot her hands up. She looked over. "Whoops... clumsy me."

Kirito bought it. "I buy that," he said. "Dumb blonde, after all?"

"Be careful, or you'll never move on from having a girl's voice," Yang warned. Her eyes flared red as she suddenly understood Jaune's opinion on the swordsman.

Kirito gulped and his hands drifted defensively to his lap. "Why are all the women in my life terrifying?"

"But what exactly happened?" Asuna inquired, either oblivious or ignoring what was going on. "You haven't really told us how you guys know each other."

The four outworlders glanced at each other, all knowing that any reveal of who they really were was likely not a good idea. Especially to these two. "That's a boring story. Tell us how you guys met Jaune and Yang!" Emerald suggested, immediately moving on to a different topic.

Asuna scoffed angrily. "But I want to know if –"

"Let me tell you a tale," Kirito interjected, more than happy to talk about his own version of his favorite topic – himself. Specifically, the powerful and amazing 'Kirito the Black Swordsman.' Ugh, Jaune had really only known him for a couple of days and already felt like he knew the dark haired kid too well. "Almost two years ago, Kayaba Akihiko created this death game. Many assumed that the monsters would be the greatest danger to players. That we would be killed by the works of a madman. But no... most of us were killed by something far worse."

"Oh, God..." Jaune mumbled, placing his hand over his face.

"The idiots that were trapped in the game were in fact the most dangerous part of the game!" Kirito crowed, capturing the angry attention of the entire restaurant. He shook his head, crossing his arms and grinning at the ground. "So many died by acting even dumber than I thought they could be. Standing in fire, attacking themselves. Having... um... auto-loot... Hm..." Kirito grew suddenly morose and his grin disappeared, replaced with pain. Jaune frowned sympathetically, remembering Kirito's moments of selflessness at the end of their last encounter. He looked up after a moment, cocky as ever. "I met those idiots and Asuna in the first boss fight. It pains me to say it, but – out of every player in this game – those three are the only ones I would trust to fight with me." He glanced at Asuna. "Even if they can't open the menu."

The knife started glowing again.

"We all killed the first floor boss together," Asuna said, pointedly glaring at the black coat that Kirito was wearing. "Even if you took all the benefits from it."

"Again, we didn't really want any," Jaune pointed out, only to earn another rage filled glare from Asuna for not backing her up. He flinched. "But, uh... he is leaving some things out."

"Like how he had no friends!" Yang said bluntly. She turned and grinned when she saw the waitress place the food in front of them. "Oh, yes..." She picked up her knife and fork again and began to tear into the food.

"Ugh... I'm reminded of Sora's eating suddenly," Jaun muttered, disgusted. "And Nora's..."

Kirito wiped from his face some food splashing from Yang's plate. "Dumb, you are disgusting."

"Who's Sora?" Asuna asked.

"Keyboy?" Mercury muttered. He shrugged. "One of their friends. He's... an idiot."

"A child," Emerald said at the same time.

"Powerful." Jaune.

"Going to get killed by me..." That one was Yang. She looked up at everyone's terrified faces. "He dates my little sister."

"Ah... logical," Kirito muttered before taking a bite of the food in front of him. He grunted. "Not bad... Not good, but..." He grunted again.

"You ordered the most expensive thing on the menu on my dime and you're not going to even appreciate it!?" Asuna shrieked angrily. "At least pretend to enjoy it!"

Kirito seemed to consider this for a moment before shrugging. "... No."

"Douchebag," Asuna muttered angrily.

Mercury nodded. "I second that."

"Are you okay?" Jaune asked.

Mercury's eyes flicked over to Emerald, almost too fast for Jaun to noice. "I'm -"

Their conversation was cut off by the sudden noise of a scream piercing the quiet of the town. "Oh, goddammit, I couldn't even finish my food!" Yang snapped as she surged to her feet. She motioned for one of the waitresses – Jaune briefly wondered if the NPC's of this world had Hearts or if they were artificial – and told her to keep the food safe. Then Yang grabbed Jaune's arm and yanked him out of his chair, sending the Keyblade wielder's fork and knife flying away.

"Wait, where are you –?" Mercury began, before noticing that, in fact, he was the only person still at the table. "I – dammit, Em!" He stood up and sprinted after the others with an angry look on his face. "Leaving me behind!?"

He caught up quickly, owing the speed to his semblance. He was soon in the town square, just outside of the restaurant and filled with by a large group of people. The warrior caught sight of his paarty and jogged over. "Thanks for ditching me, Em," he growled at the green haired girl. She didn't respond, instead opting to stare upward with a stern look on her face. He looked around and saw that Jaune, Yang, and Asuna were all horrified. In fact, most people in the crowed were horrified by something. In fact, other than Emerald, only Kirito was seeminly unaffected. So Mercury followed their eyes.

A man was hanging from a clock tower, an ornate sword buried in his torso.

"Huh," Mercury muttered, more confused by the sight than anything else. "I thought people couldn't get hurt like this in a safe zone."

"That's right, Anderson Cooper. So this must be some sort of event, or a prank. You know, like someone screwing around with an NPC," Kirito said. Mercury immediately felt unending rage for having the same thought as Kirito.

"Who would do that?" Jaune wondered aloud. He sounded sick.

"I know, right?" Kirito asked. His next words lowered everyone's opinion of him. "I wish I'd thought of it."

"I don't believe you," Asuna muttered before turning and sprinting into the tower. "I'll cut him down. You guys keep an eye out for whoever might have done this!"

"Could it be the Heartless?" Jaune asked.

"Nah, they can't enter towns," Emerald muttered. She bit the inside of her cheek anxiously. This all felt... odd. She couldn't put her finger on it, but this whole thing felt like some kind of lie.

"They're safe havens from all monsters. Even those screwed up glitches can't kill people here," Kirito said. He looked around even as the man above continued to scream for help. "Which is why I know this isn't a player dying. Kirito is Always Right Foundation is taking donations because I deserve pay for educating you idiots."

"But someone is dying! We can see it in front of us!" Jaune snapped at Kirito, fists clenched at his side. "God, how could I ever think you had a single heroic bone in your body?"

"Oh, I'm a hero. Of logic," Kirito retorted coolly. "Now, does someone have a thirty foot stick? I really want to take a whack at this pinata."

Jaune was very surprised when it wasn't his fist that slammed into Kirito's face. "Focus," Yang growled, having just knocked Kirito down. The diamond above her head was flickering orange for a moment before returning to green. "You're distracting everyone." She returned her attention to the crowd.

They didn't have much longer to look. As soon as Asuna made it up there, everything went wrong. "Don't worry!" the swordswoman called to the man hanging from the tower. "We'll get you down from there in a -" She was cut off by a more agonized scream than before and the man shattering into a thousand tiny shards of light. The sword flashed as its entire blade was hit by light before it spun and began to tumble towards the ground, landing tip first in the ground.

"Uh..."

"Quick, did anyone see any of the candy?!" Kirito mocked.

"A man just died, idiot!" Jaune growled, his stunned silence replaced with rage.

Kirito shook his head, stunned by what he believed was pure idiocy. "For the last time, Dumber, you can't die in a safe zone! It's just impossible," he explained exasperatedly. "Though, please, do try. It should make for an entertaining sight to watch you swan dive off the clocktower."

"Not funny," Jaune snapped. Ugh, why did Kirito just annihilate any sort of emotional control Jaune had and replace it with hate. Might as well be a stupid test.

"Jesus, what did he do this time?!" Asuna cried when she reached the ground again. She looked around the group. "Anybody?"

"Excuse me..." a girl with purple hair muttered before walking up. She took a breath and said quickly, "My name is Yolko. I knew the man who just died."

Kirito cringed. He couldn't have been wrong, could he? "Y-you mean NPC... right?" he asked hopefully.

"What? No! Caynz was my friend..."

"How's that Kirito's Always Right foundation going?" Emerald dryly asked. She tossed an annoyed glare at him.

"We, uh... We're going through a bit of a rough patch..." the swordsman admitted, even though it sounded like it broke him to do so.

"No duh," Jaune sighed. He was getting too angry – he knew Kirito was just doing this for the attention. He looked over at Yolko, who was staring at the ground with a dead look on her face. "So... what can you tell us?"

She looked up, purple hair fluttering. "I... I have a few ideas..." She sounded too scared to do this outside.

Yang walked over to the sword on the ground. She gingerly lifted the weapon and examined it. The blade was a deep black with protrusions that looked like a cross between wisping Darkness and the thorns of a rose. The handle was a dark, bloody red that made the black seem even darker. If these safe zones were really safe... then what in the hell kind of Darkness made it so this thing could kill someone in a safe zone?

"Come with us," Jaune finally said, motioning for everyone to follow. He looked over at Yang, who was still staring at the sword. "Yang!"

She looked up, then tucked the sword into her belt. "Yeah," she muttered before running off after the rest of the group, following Jaune into Restaurant.

"So..." Jaune began as they sat down at their table. Yang was picking at her food, very happy that it had been preserved as she had requested. "Anyone you can think of who would want to kill Caynz?"

Kirito, thankfully, kept his mouth shut for a while.

"Well... like I said, I do have an idea," Yolko said again. She placed her hands on the table and fidgeted uncomfortably. "You see... Caynz and I, we used be be part of a guild together. We were lead by a woman named Griselda and, well, it worked out pretty well for a while. Until, well, it fell apart."

"As guilds do," Kirito muttered, pained.

"Yeah, well, we all just kind of drifted apart once our guild leader died," she explained further. She looked down. "I don't know who did it, but... well, Griselda died under suspicious circumstances. I bet it has to do with that." She looked sadly at her hands, tightening them on the table. "I bet they'll come after me next!"

"Oh come on, you'll be safe. It's not like anybody can kill you in a..." Kirito considered what he was about to say, then let it out anyways, "safe... zone..."

"Smooth," Jaune sighed, eyes shut in disappointment.

"Oh, shut up," Kirito growled back. He looked over at Yang, specifically the sword on her hip. "Look, we'll put you up here for the night while we go investigate that sword, okay, Yoga Pants?"

The purple haired girl blinked in surprise. "Yoga p-?"

"Yolko," Jaune corrected.

Kirito just shrugged. "Regardless of your name, Yoga Pants, is that good with you?"

Yolko nodded passively. "Sure, I'll just... be here, if you have any more questions." She looked around distrustfully, as if afraid that someone was about to kill her. Which, Yang supposed, someone very well might do.

S M H S

"Hey, Tiff, you'll never guess who I ran into," Kirito said loudly as he barged into a store on another floor of Aincrad, the rest of the group following close behind.

A large, dark skinned man turned towards them from behind a counter. "Oh, if it isn't Kirito, my least favorite customer," the man joked, holding his fist out to the swordsman.

"Ah, you're just saying that cause I'm too smart to buy any of your junk," Kirito retorted, grinning like he was actually friends with someone. Jaune felt surprised that Tiffany of all people was that person, given how they'd all parted ways on the first floor. Kirito's fist came up to bump against Tiffany's. "Hey, man."

"Wow, you're right! I never would've guessed who you had around," Tiffany noted as he saw Jaune and Yang enter, standing in front of Emerald, Mercury, and Asuna in the door's frame. "Wow, I haven't seen you two since all that business on the first floor, eh fearless leader." He shot an angry glare at Kirito, who just laughed nervously. Tiffany sighed and looked back at Jaune and Yang. "It's been too long, Jaune. Yang. How you been?"

"Mostly good. Exploring," Yang said, description as vague as possible with a tone that said she didn't really want any more questions. She looked around, whistling once. "Wow. Moving up in the world."

"Always," Tiffany said. He looked over Jaune's shoulder. "Who's – Oh, God, no!" He wrapped his arm around Kirito and pulled him halfway over the countertop. "Kirito, man, I thought we were friends! Why would you bring her here!?"

"What is this about?" Mercury asked, moving up past Jaune and Yang, forcing them to step aside so the doorway was open.

"I can't wait to find out," Yang said simply.

"Yang – " Jaune began. He sighed before grinning excitedly and admitting, "Me neither."

"Hey, T-Pain. Wazzup in this... hizzy?"

Jaune, Yang, Mercury, and Emerald all turned towards the source of the question. The same hot tempered, possibly sadistic, swordswoman that had just a couple hours ago told Kirito to have more empathy and common sense was standing between them, looking incredibly awkward. Everyone stared at her for a beat before, suddenly, Kirito began to cry. "Are you crying!" Tiffany snapped in disbelief at his friend.

Kirito sniffled and, in a voice full of hope, said, "There's... there's just so much beauty in the world, you know?"

Jaune and Yang couldn't contain their laughter at that.

After getting the black clad swordsman to stop crying tears of pure joy, the group gathered in the back of Tiffany's shop, handing over the odd sword to the shop's owner and telling him what happened. Naturally, Asuna made it much harder. "So them's the sitch, T-Fizzle. Think you can scope the deets on that gat for us... Homie?"

Mercury felt like laughing at how uncomfortable the room's atmosphere was. Tiffany looked like he was going to actually kill the girl. After a while, he turned and looked at literally everyone else. "Sure thing, guys. Anything for... anybody but Asuna," he said, voice devoid of the rage he was feeling. Mercury snickered.

"But what about me? T-Pain? What, you got cotton in your ear – OH GOD! I – I didn't mean it like that!" she screamed, hands up as she tried to show how apologetic she felt.

Kirito joined in the laughter. "Okay... Look, Tiff, if you could do this before Grand Wizard Asuna here starts a race war, that'd be great."

"Race wars. Good to know that's not just our world," Yang whispered to Jaune, voice serious.

"Well I can try, but appraising a weapon like this ain't gonna be easy," the tall man said before reaching forward and grabbing the weapon. He held the blade out in front of him before taking a deep breath and swiping his hand down to open a menu. He selected the option that said, 'Appraise,' and a loading screen appeared in front of him.

"Wow. You've really mastered your craft, Tiff," Kirito muttered dryly, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall.

"That's it?" Mercury asked. He sighed. "I was hoping it'd be more... More."

"It's about as impressive as your fighting skills," Kirito remarked with a smirk, ignoring the fact that Mercury had tried to kill him multiple times today. "How haven't you been killed already?"

Mercury grew enraged for a moment before he shook his head and looked away. "Leave him alone," Emerald said after a moment of staring at her partner in surprise at his self control. She marched over to Kirito. "Or else."

Asuna looked over. "Hey... don't," she threatened right back.

Jaune and Yang looked over at each other. "This... isn't going well," he muttered to himself before casting a glance over at the increasingly tense couple of... 'not couples.'

"Yeah..." Yang grimaced. She looked over at Tiffany, who was simply watching with an amused grin. "So, how's the sword, Tiffany?"

The fight cut off and the group turned towards the merchant, who sighed heavily. "And just as it was getting fun," he muttered. He shrugged. "Well, the item description says it's called Heartless Vengeance, made by some guy named Grimlock."

"'Heartless?'" Jaune echoed, suddenly hoarse.

"Like the glitch monsters?" Asuna wondered aloud. She grunted in surprise. "So... does this Grimlock guy have some sort of connection to them?"

"If he does, then these glitch monsters are worse than any of us know," Tiffany said. He placed the sword on the table. "As far as I can tell, there's nothing about this weapon that would let anyone kill someone in a safe zone."

"Well, then," Mercury said, picking it up. "Only one thing to do."

He turned on his heel and swung the weapon directly at Kirito's head. "NO!" everyone in the room shrieked, with Kirito snapping out a "MOMMY!" Asuna dove for Mercury in a vain effort to keep the weapon from slicing Kirito's head clean off.

She needn't worry, however, as the weapon bounced off of Kirito's screaming frame without leaving behind a single scratch. "Aw... it didn't work," Mercury growled before Asuna slammed into him, sending the both tumbling down.

"What were you thinking!?" the girl screamed as her fists wrapped around Mercury's wrists and he was forced tot he ground.

Mercury stared up into her eyes. "I was attacking him with the sword to see if it'd kill him," Mercury countered coolly. His eyes hardened to steel as they locked on to Kirito. "I guess I was unlucky."

Kirito breathed heavily from the wall, eyes wide and glazed over with pure terror as he grasped at himself to check he was really fine. "I... I'm alive?"

Jaune looked over at Mercury's cold glare. He understood animosity with Kirito – God, did he understand. But... This was a lot. This was...

"Merc, why'd you do that?"

Mercury's eyes flicked towards Emerald. Jaune saw the fear, the hurt that filled them as he stared at her and considered her question. "Had to test it somehow," he responded before letting his head hit the ground. He suddenly looked spent.

Jaune suddenly realized, no. It wasn't sudden. He had looked this tired all day. But why? "Don't do it again," Emerald commanded. She gestured at Yang and Jaune as evidence of her next statement. "We're better than that, now."

Mercury shut his eyes. "Okay."

Emerald frowned, then shook her head. "Well, we know it wasn't the weapon that killed Caynz," she said, looking just as tired now. She walked over to it and picked it up, handing it over to Tiffany. "Hold onto this."

"Hmph... handing the black man a murder weapon," he muttered with a shake of his head. "Tale as old as time." He looked over at the horrified Kirito. "If it could kill."

Asuna glared down at Mercury. "He won't do it again." Asuna looked up at Emerald. The green haired girl sighed, "I promise."

S M H S

True to Emerald's word, Mercury had yet to attack Kirito again. He seemed too drained after his earlier attack to try anything else, almost regretful in fact. His animosity seemed to have died with his attack, replaced by a more obvious concern for Emerald and an almost apologetic attention to Kirito. When they had learned from Yolko the experiences surrounding Yolko's death, he remained quiet despite the Darkness of the story. Griselda had been killed for an item – likely by one of her own guild. The only people to vote for keeping the item had been Yolko, Caynz, and a lancer named Shmidt for whom she obviously had... negative feelings. Upon hearing Grimlock had made the weapon, she immediately assumed he was Caynz' murderer; Griselda had been his wife. Mercury's eyes hadn't left Emerald since then.

Now, the group was upstairs with Schmidt and Yolko. Schmidt was crying on his chair, screaming in fear. "Ugh, is he always like this?" Asuna asked, her tolerance for everything already at an all time low.

"Only when he's stressed," Yolko supplied.

"Oh, that's g -" Jaune began.

"He's always stressed," Kirito sighed, having met the lancer a few times outside of this adventure.

"Oh, joy," Yang sighed, falling into another chair. She cast a glance at Yolko. "So, what's he scared about right now?"

"He was a game reviewer in the real world, and now that he's stuck here he's scared some of his more... verbose commenters are going to come after him," Yolko explained as the man continued muttering in terror.

"I laughed at their comments! Laughed! But now, what if they do kill me, hollow out my ribcage, and ride me like some sort of meat toboggan!?" he screamed at the sky.

"Ooh. Meat toboggan. Picture that, guys. Gripping his entrails like the reins of Santa's sleigh, his eyes asking the same questions as those of the horrified children left in his wake..." Kirito said with a smirk. "... why...?"

Schmidt whimpered.

"Look, can you just explain about all this?" Jaune asked, trying to keep another incident like that in Tiffany's shop from occurring again. "We're trying to keep anybody else from dying."

Yolko nodded. "Don't worry about your commenters, Schmidt," she said, walking towards the window. She looked out of it for a second, then looked back at the calming Schmidt. "It's Grimlock, come to take vengeance for the death of Griselda!"

"Oh... no..." Jaune muttered. This was going to turn out worse than Tiffany's shop, he could already tell.

"I disagree. I think she's got flair," Emerald said as she watched the girl at the window.

"Wait..." Yolko muttered. Her eyes widened in abject terror. "No! Grimlock couldn't have killed Griselda inside a safe zone so... It must be Griselda's ghost! Come from beyond the grave to wreak rigtheous vengeance upon us all!"

Kirito grimaced. "Flair? Eh, more like screaming monkeys in her brain..."

"She's claiming righteous vengeance for our crimes, she's going to kill us all!" Yolko continued screaming.

Schmidt was crying in his chair, now.

"You gonna say anything to stop this?" Asuna asked... anybody.

"A ghost didn't kill Caynz," Kirito cut in. He rolled his eyes. "Obviously it was a hit put out by the Mermaid mafia paid with Leprechaun gold... But who was the middleman? The Unicorns? No, the Unicorns and the Leprechauns have been feuding for years..."

Mercury finally cut in. "Wow. Constructive," he muttered quietly.

"She's going to -" Yolko stopped speaking suddenly and everyone's eyes turned from Schmidt over to the window. Yolko was open mouthed, pain flashing across her every feature. "I... I..." Then she turned around, revealing a knife in her back before she tumbled out of the window.

"Yolko!" Jaune screamed, sprinting forward with the speed of a Keyblade wielder. He reached out and tried to grab onto the woman's cape before she could hit the ground. He hit the wall and leaned over, hand wide open in an attempt to grab onto her cape and haul her into the room. His fist wrapped around the cloth tight, catching her. He smiled in relief. "Hang on, I'll -" Then she shattered into a thousand pieces, the cape disappearing with her. Jaune fell to his knees. "No, I..." He looked up, looking for where the knife had come from. He got lucky, catching sight of a figure in a cape.

He surged to his feet. "Yang, Sunrise," he commanded. The blonde brawler nodded solemnly and sprinted forward, jumping over Jaune and grabbing hold of his shoulder before throwing him out of the window and over to the next rooftop. She launched a Firaga behind her as she soared over the street as well, fireball exploding immediately and sending her up to the ceiling after him.

"I'll get hi -" Kirito shouted, trying to follow. He, lacking a way to soar to the next building, was not fast or strong enough to hit the next roof and instead tumbled facefirst into a window.

Mercury and Emerald, however, could. "What's the plan, Blondies?" Emerald asked as the four of them ran across the rooftop after the figure, steadily gaining on it.

"We need to get as close as possible. Mercury and Emerald, you two will fight it head on and give us time to catch up," Jaune said, pausing before readying to launch into his next order.

"No. You'll get there faster than Emerald, Keyboy," Mercury interjected before Jaune could. The Keyblade wielder glanced over to try and find out why, but Mercury was already gone.

Fine, they didn't have time to argue anyways. "Me, then. I'll keep this person busy and we'll catch up."

"You got it, Cap," Yang replied.

Jaune sighed and sprinted off, pouring as much speed on as he could. He lacked a long range melee weapon of the kind that Emerald used that would be useful for restraining and capturing this person. He'd just have to try and freeze the person, then. "Deep freeze!" he shouted, summoning the Keyblade in front of him and sending a rocket of blackened ice soaring at his enemy. Dark Blizzard? He had to remind himself that this wasn't a problem. He was angry, but he wasn't out of control.

The ice soared towards the figure, who was busy struggling to dodge all of Mercury's attacks. The figure received a kick in the chest from Mercury and stumbled back, barely managing to fall to its back so that the icy energy flew right over its chest. "Oof!" the 'Ghost' grunted as its back hit the ground and it failed to phase through the roof.

Jaune filed this information away and leaped into the air, raising his Keyblade and preparing to bring it down to slam into the not-Ghost's chest. The person in the hood yelped in surprise and forced himself to his feet, jumping away just as the Keyblade crashed through the roof, sending wood flying everywhere. Jaune quickly turned this into another attack, letting his anger spike in his gut. "You killed Yolko!" he snapped at the being as ice erupted from the Keyblade and ran across the ground towards the figure's body.

"What!?" the person snapped as the ice shot towards him. He dove out of the spell's curving pat, barely missing a massive icicle that erupted from the ground beneath him. "WHAT!?"

"Some ghost." A pair of sickle kurasigama swirled through the air, crashing into the ground on either side of the figure. The owner of those kurasigama pulled herself feet first towards the figure, her heels slamming into the figure's head and sending him sliding across the ground, where his head collided with Yang's steel toed boot.

"Agh!" The ghost went flying, landing with a thud in the center of the square made up by the four Remnant born warriors.

"Now... tell us what you're doing," Emerald growled, lowering one of her gun's blades at the man's neck. She narrowed her eyes. "I know something is up. I'm an illusionist myself... and those deaths felt off. What did you do?"

The figure's hood wavered for a moment, and the sickle wielder's eyes widened. "You're -" She was tackled out of the way of a dagger that was easily thrown wide, and the figure threw his hand up. A gibberish word escaped his mouth before he disappeared in a flash of blue light.

"Merc, what was that for? He wasn't going to hit me!" Emerald snapped at the figure shielding her with his body. She slammed her fist into his shoulder and shoved him off. She shoved herself up to her feet and glared at him. "You... God, you idiot." She turned towards Yang and Jaune. "Let's go talk to Kirito and Asuna about this. I know exactly what happened." She cast a glance over her shoulder at Mercury. "You can just..." She scoffed and walked away without another word.

"I'll follow you in a minute," Jaune muttered as Yang and Emerald turned to leave. His own eyes never left the angry and hurt Mercury who remained kneeling on the ground.

Yang followed his gaze. "We'll keep the fire warm and figure out the next move," she said. She placed her hand on Jaune's shoulder, comforting him and telling him he could do it. Then she patted his shoulder again and left.

Jaune kept glaring at Mercury for a few minutes, the moon drifting into view from behind the clouds. "What!?" the former assassin snapped. He surged to his feet. "What is it, Blondie!?"

"Why are you acting like this?" Jaune inquired. He dismissed the Keyblade and crossed his arms.

Mercury scoffed as he stood up. "Like what, Blondie?"

Jaune walked up to Mercury. "You're acting weird when it comes to Emerald and Kirito," Jaune explained. He shrugged. "I acted the same way once. But I want to know why you're doing it now. Did she almost die? Did he hurt someone? What happened?"

"No!" Mercury cried. He sighed and tried to calm himself down. It kind of worked. "No, she didn't get hurt. And the black haired idiot couldn't hurt anyone with a little bit of skill."

Jaune studied his former enemy's face. "Then what happened?"

Mercury shrugged. "I don't know." He looked up and caught sight of Jaune's serious, disbelieving glare. Mercury shrugged again. "Fine. You want to know?"

"Uh... I mean, I asked?" Jaune said aloud, unsure of the correct answer.

Mercury glared in silence for a few moments. "Well... if anyone would understand, it'd be you," Mercury said. He bit his cheek. Then: "Just – Look, just don't let Em find out. Promise me, Blondie. Promise me."

Jaune considered the question for a while. "Why?" he finally asked, voice earnest. "What if she needs to know?"

"It would hurt her, Jaune. She doesn't remember, but she's still... fragile." He shook his head. "Never thought I'd say that; she's tough as diamond."

The Keyblade wielder flinched. Mercury had used his real name? Jaune thought about it for a few more seconds until, finally, he said, "Okay. I promise I won't tell her."

Mercury studied Jaune's face for a moment, wondering if he could trust the Keyblade wielder's promise. That stung, but Jaune understood given how he'd betrayed his friends once before. It seemed good enough for Mercury, however. "Fine. I'll tell you, Blondie. It all happened at the Sheeptar raid last night."

S M H S

Mercury leaped forward with a huge grin on his face, easily moving over the huge stream of acid that had flown from Sheeptar's open maw. The Sheep King was perched on one of the raid room's walls, its six legs gripping the stone so it could rain down death from above. Its tail swished dangerously near a set of stone outcroppings, keeping the raid party away from stairs one could use to jump on its back and initiate an attack. In fact, Mercury was one of the very few fighters who were fast enough to begin that assault.

The former assassin hit the ground in a roll, activating his Semblance when he came back up to his feet. He zoomed past a sudden twitch of the lizard like tail of Sheeptar the Sheep King that sent a few players flying and into critical condition. It had been like this for a few hours, a constant and never ending fight that changed every five minutes as another bar of Sheeptar's health disappeared and triggered the next stage of the battle. This looked to be the last one, but Sheeptar's placement on the wall made it difficult to hurt him. Hence Mercury's placement as the tip of the proverbial spear.

The fight was going rather well, he thought as he ran parallel to the wall that Sheeptar hung onto; the raid party had yet to lose a single warrior this go. After the seven deaths in the last three attempts on Sheeptar's life, that was a pretty good sign. The first stair was a good six feet in front of him, leading up to the second stair three or so feet beyond that. He jumped and ran across the wall, pushing up and moving fast enough to keep his descent back to the ground slow – he was fairly certain that if he wasn't from Remnant and his Semblance wasn't speed, it wouldn't have worked. He jumped from the wall after about five feet, leaping past the first stair entirely and landing on the second with enough momentum he was forced to keep moving from stair to stair lest he risk falling to the ground.

He tossed that familiar streak of mint green hair a cocky smile before closing his eyes and jumping to the third stair. He nearly toppled over and elected to keep his eyes open from now on; he could practically feel Emerald's eye roll-scoff combo for that mistake he'd made. Mercury grit his teeth and focused, making sure to keep his balance as he got ever closer to the monster. Soon, he was close enough to leap onto the nearest puff of pink wool. He pulled himself up effortlessly and soon found himself standing atop the cloud, terrifying, horrible, black scales not far from his face.

"Okay. Let's have some fun," Mercury said to himself. He raised his fists to enter a ready stance before lancing out with his right foot, coating it with icy energy that he could use to build stairs along the monster's back while hurting the creature. The monster roared angrily as his foot collided with its spine, the magic dealing non-trivial damage to the monster. It shook its body violently, sending Mercury flying up. He was barely able to wrap his fingers around the icicle to keep himself from getting thrown away. He pulled himself against it when the monster began to calm down and start to attack the raid party again. He grinned and pulled his feet onto the icicle, giving him a better springboard to rocket up to the monster's head. "EM! Watch this!" He coated his foot with flames and slammed it into the base of Sheeptar's terrifying skull. The monster roared in pain and its feet disconnected from the wall, tumbling to the ground.

Merc landed softly by the wall, grinning as the green haired girl ran up to him. "Showing off already?" she asked, elbowing him in the side.

"Why wouldn't I?" Mercury retorted before they looked over at Sheeptar again. It seemed the monster was spawning mini-mes to defend itself. "Well, looks like we're back on murder duty."

"Who would have thought it really was a fluffy Xenomorph?" Emerald asked her partner, spinning her sickles and readying to go fight the mob enemies.

"You called it," Mercury replied with a grin. He gestured at the monsters. "After you."

"Wow. Gentlemanly," Emerald remarked before charging the monsters. Mercury scoffed and took after her, grinning.

These mobs were a rather easy fight, especially in comparison to the larger boss that the main body of the raid party was dealing with. Well, 'dealing.' There was a group playing Bejewled in the back, for some reason, and a bunch of people who were pretending to attack while actually staying away from the combat. The people who were actually good at fighting – specifically Heathcliff and Asuna – were quickly taking out that last bit of damage that kept the monster alive. Mercury spun and kicked one tiny Sheeptar's face off. "Bet I kill more," he half-joked.

"As if," Emerald retorted, using both sickles to kill a monster apiece. She spun and threw out one of the chains, wrapping it around one of the Sheeplet's throats and turning on her heel to throw it at another.

Mercury narrowed his eyes and picked up his pace. "Oh, I will!" he shouted at her, kicking a hole into another's chest then dropkicking another one into a third, flames coating its skin so that both died in a tiny, fiery explosion. It went on like that for a few minutes until, finally, Sheeptar shrieked at the ceiling and shattered.

"I win!" Mercury snapped when the mob enemies suddenly disappeared. He turned and pointed at Emerald. "I won!"

"Wha-? Hell no you didn't!" Emerald shouted back. She crossed her arms. "I totally won!"

Mercury just grinned at her. "Fine," he replied with a shrug. "I'll let you have this one. This time."

"Okay, sure," Emerald responded, smirking.

Mercury rolled his eyes and leaned away from her, looking away to hide a blush after their eyes met. "So, where do you think that Kirito guy is? He was pretty angry we were running late earlier and it doesn't look like he's here."

"Who knows," Emerald shrugged. "Do you really care?"

Mercury looked back at her. "Ha! … Nah..."

"Good, I -"

An explosion of Darkness cut off her next words and sent the two warriors flying away from each other. Mercury came to a moment later, and found that Sheeptar had returned, worse than before. Its fluff had become sharp and solid, keeping the pink color but adding in sharp yellow spikes that looked like Gummi. The skin was now deep black with a skull elongated far beyond the norm and the arms had taken on a more skeletal theme. "Ah, crud," Mercury muttered. He saw the monster shriek, its glowing maw releasing a stream of green magic that burned through a group of fighters. Most managed to dodge, though a trio of tanks shattered after a few slow seconds. Mercury bit his cheek, wondering what to do before he noticed that Emerald had already started charging.

"Dammit, Em," he cursed to himself before surging to his feet and sprinting after her.

He weaved through panicking players, all of them screaming about how this wasn't supposed to happen anymore. "What!? But... Game Over, Man! Game Over!" Heathcliff screamed as the no-longer-fluffy-Xenomorph roared at them.

"Now isn't the time, Sir!" Asuna shouted, trying to drag him away.

Mercury didn't care. He leaped forward, vaulting with one shivering lancer's shoulders and landing next to Emerald. "How are we gonna stop that thing?" he asked. From this angle he could see the Heartless emblem prevalent on the chest 'fluff' of the monster.

"We'll think of something," she replied, unsure.

Mercury didn't want to say he disagreed. "Okay, then let's jump in," he said, jumping ahead of her. He shot a pair of Firagas at the Heartless, attacks that splashed uselessly against the sharp wool and disappeared into nothing. He grimaced and twisted midair to avoid an incoming claw attack. He felt wind run across his back, the claw passing beneath him by barely an inch. The two swordsmen in the claw's path were not as lucky, instead vanishing in explosions of Darkness, Hearts rising to the sky. Mercury landed hard and tumbled.

Emerald ran past him, abandoning any level of secrecy when it came to her guns. Bullets laced with magical energy lanced out from her guns, smacking against the Heartless' body and dealing minor damage. "Merc, you okay?" she called, voice tinged with worry.

"Yeah, it didn't hit me," he replied, leaping forward and firing his own attack. Sheeptar roared, more in annoyance than anything else, and raised its claw. A massive gust of wind flew at Mercury and Emerald while they continued to fire at the creature, everyone else in the raid party too scared to do anything else. They were thrown backwards, all the way across the room, and collided with the stone wall. Mercury and Emerald landed in heaps next to one another, groaning. "Well... it did that time."

"Ugh..." Emerald replied hoarsely.

Mercury looked over and pushed himself up to his knees. She was still down; conscious, but unable to move while her Aura worked overtime to fix her wounds. Mercury knew he wasn't too much better, though. He was barely up on his knees. It was then that he noticed the Heartless had its eyes locked on the both of them. It took a step towards them, then another. Another. It was ignoring all the other fighters in its path, stepping without care for whether or not they were beneath its feet. They scattered. Remarkably, none of them died.

"Em, get up." Mercury shook her arm. "Em, you gotta get up."

She stirred and tried to push herself up. She failed.

Mercury shut his eyes. "God...dammit, Em," Mercury muttered. He found the resolve to force himself to his feet. "Why am I doing this? Even for you?" He didn't know. Really. But he sprinted towards the Heartless anyways, determined to get Emerald the time she needed to get back in the fight. The monster looked down and stopped moving as spells began to pepper its skin. "Yeah, ugly! Pay attention to me, Little Lamb!"

The creature hissed and lashed out with its tail. Mercury grit his teeth and jumped back, flipping until he was just outside of the tail's range. Before Mercury landed, however, the monster's sharp tail extended suddenly and impaled him. He froze and felt rather than saw the black encroach on his vision. He didn't have much time to ponder the pain blooming in his chest as, with speed surprising for such a large creature, he was tossed through the air again, a massive cold feeling in his entire body.

"MERCURY!" He heard, far away. He blinked; that voice sounded familiar. Who – The face came into view.

"Oh, right. Em!" he said, even though he couldn't hear his own voice. "It's you."

"Merc, hold on!" she snapped, grabbing his face and forcing him to stare into her eyes.

He laughed, and his brain yelled at him that nothing funny was going on. The blood loss – he hadn't been aware that could happen in this world – told him that it was funny. "Hold on to what?"

Em glared at him, her usual disappointment filled instead with fear. "I..." It was replaced with rage a couple seconds later. Her hands wrapped around the lamp at her waist. She rubbed her hands over the genie's home, roaring in rage. "GENIE! Save him!" Then she tossed the lamp to the ground and turned towards the Heartless, breathing heavy.

"Save who?" Genie asked, yawning as he appeared out of the lamp in a cloud of smoke. "I –" He froze when he saw Mercury. His face grew resolute and he snapped his fingers. Mercury gasped in pain as his body stitched itself together.

A pulse of rage, terror, and jealousy ran through the humans, breaking their concentration on the battle.

"What is that thing?"

"Where'd he come from!?"

"Is he saving that guy's life!?"

"How come he gets to live?"

"Al, this isn't good," Genie muttered while Mercury slowly healed. "Al, we need to get out of here. People seeing me isn't good."

Mercury breathed heavily and stared at her, worry filling his heart. "Em? Em, are you okay?" He pushed himself up despite his pain and reached for her.

The scream that tore from her throat that accompanied the pulse of Darkness that came off the woman moments later kept him from reaching Emerald, instead tossing hi away from her. He rolled across the ground, the lamp slamming into his gut as soon as he stopped moving. "Em!" he shouted, standing up on unsteady legs again and grabbing onto the lamp. "EM!"

She couldn't hear him; she was captured by her inner Darkness as it swirled through her soul and filled her Heart with rage. "EM! Em, what are you doing!?"

She was just walking towards the Heartless, Darkness swirling in her hands, off her shoulders, and through her hair. Mercury could only watch, still in horrible pain from the wound freshly healed in his gut when she stopped in front of the Heartless. It raised its claw and brought it down, right on top of her.

"EMERALD!" he screamed, rushing forward, only for a large blue arm to grab him.

"Don't, Silver," the Genie ordered, uncharacteristically calm. He frowned. "She's still alive. For now."

"How? She was just flattened, you gas giant!" Mercury snapped back.

Genie shook his head and pointed towards the Heartless. A large, black blade was protruding from the monster's wrist. The claw had disappeared into shadow, leaving behind nothing. Emerald held two large, black sickles in her hands. Chains erupted from the walls, huge. "Illusions?" Mercury whispered, only to be surprised when the Darkness that ran through her collided full force with the Heartless and it was flipped head over heels by the blow. "How!? She's an illusionist!"

"Darkness," Genie explained solemnly. He seemed just as worried as Mercury himself, concern for the girl apparent in both of their eyes. "If you stop her now, she'll be stunned. She'll die."

Emerald leaped towards the falling Heartless, spinning like a whirlwind that caused the black blades to slash across the monster's chest. The Heartless' once impenetrable Gummi-fluff shattered from the continuous blows, one by one carving apart the monstrous armor. She brought the blades of Darkness together in front of her, crashing through the acid magic that the Heartless had launched at hr in an attempt to kill her. It dissipated on the sickles and she flicked back, sending a buffeting burst of air at the creature that sent it off balance. The Darkness around her shoulders seemed to have deepened upon absorbing and deflecting the Dark spell, and the sickles grew. The Heartless swiped at her again, but she threw the sickles up, black chains sprouting from her weapons and pulling her towards the ceiling.

Emerald dropped above the Heartless, weapons crossed in front of her and a look of quiet rage on her features. Monsters sprouted from the Darkness, screeching illusions of the Grimm made real that charged the Heartless' feet and slashed at it. The other players screamed in terror and drew their weapons, holding them defensively while the monsters passed them. Mercury knew, somehow, that wouldn't last long. Especially not when Emerald reached the Heartless and brought her attacks across her body so that the blades passed through the base of Sheeptar's neck. She landed on the ground with a quiet thud beneath the sudden explosion of Darkness caused by the Heartless' inability to hold itself together. Mercury took a half step forward. "Em -"

"Hey, what is that thing!?" He barely was able to jump backwards before the attacking player could steal the lamp from his grasp. The player – a girl with closely cropped black hair – hefted a large ax over her shoulder. "Give it here! I want to make a wish!"

Mercury grit his teeth and took a step back. "What's the plan, Silver?" the genie asked, worried. "I won't kill anybody, remember?"

"I know, just..." Mercury growled and looked around. More than just that player were advancing on him.

"You're gonna give me that, or -"

The Grimm shrieked in rage and drew away the attention of the players. The fight had ended, but... "Form a line!" Heathcliff shouted, raising his sword above his head. But in reality, it had just begun. The Grimm – mostly Beowolves and a few Ursai – were slamming into players, slashing at them, trying to kill them. The players attacking Mercury were picked off by a Nevermore that appeared out of nowhere, screeching a battle cry.

Genie laughed nervously. "Okay. Time for you to rescue her."

"Rescue – ? HOW!?" Mercury snapped at the blue figure floating next to him. He looked over at Emerald. Saying what now felt like a catchphrase, he went, "God... dammit, Em!" He sprinted at full speed into the center of the fight. She wouldn't hurt him. She wouldn't hurt him. She wouldn't – He was so fixated on that mantra that he barely dodged the Ursa claw swiping at his head. Okay, she wouldn't hurt him on purpose! He redoubled his speed to get to her.

She wasn't moving anymore, but the Darkness around her was coalescing, shaking. Reaching out in every direction to feed the Grimm she'd made. "Em! Em!" he snapped when he got close, grabbing onto her shoulders. "Em!" Her eyes, a dull yellow instead of the usual bright red, didn't see him. "Em, you have to stop this. You won. The monster's dead. It's over!"

She didn't respond, though her eyes did fix on him. "Emerald, let it go. Please," he ordered. He slid his hands down to hers. "Em... Please."

She didn't respond, and the Darkness flared again. It pushed against Mercury, forcing his fingers from her and moving him backwards across the stone. He held on, but just barely, to her fingers with his own. "Emerald..." He fought his voice, now on the edge of breaking. "Don't." He'd lost that fight, it seemed.

She blinked once, eyes turning bright red again. "Wha-?" she asked, finally snapped out of the Darkness that had been holding her. She was disoriented, nearly falling. Mercury surged forward to balance her. She shook her head in an effort to get blood flowing and wake her up. Mercury looked around, hopeful. The Grimm were disappearing, just like he'd expected. But... Slow. They kept hurting people. Good, that meant they had a distraction. "Mercury, what..?"

"Al, we gotta go," Genie said, appearing out of thin air beside the two. "They saw the lamp, they're going to try to take it. And I'd rather stick with you than... BigBootiez4Lyf..." Genie shook his head, utterly disappointed.

"Mercury, what happened?" Emerald asked. She looked around, taking in the screams of pain and the noise of the slowly disappearing Grimm. Mercury bit his lip. He hadn't even heard the screams. No, that wasn't it. He just hadn't cared. "Did I do this?" She clutched her gut as if she had been hit there as hard as possible. "I'm worried I did this? Worried? Heh... me?" She clutched tighter at herself.

"Em, it doesn't matter! We need to get out of here!" Mercury commanded. He raised his hand and opened a portal of Darkness. "Now." He pulled, but she wouldn't budge. "Brown-noser, come on!"

She looked up, but she wasn't looking at him. She was horrified, staring at the ceiling as she realized she had created the Grimm.. Mercury swallowed before letting out a dry scoff. "When did you actually start caring about people?" he asked, half impressed and half disappointed. The portal shut. When did I start actually falling for you? He made up his mind. "Well, you won't remember this anyways." He held the lamp in his left hand, and with his right grabbed hold of her neck, very tenderly. He pulled them together, placing his lips on hers in a passionate albeit soft kiss. He let himself forget where he was for a couple seconds, just enjoying that he got to do this once before he died.

He let go and took a step back, Emerald still leaning into the kiss so she stumbled forward to catch herself. "Genie. Give her my third wish," Mercury commanded, holding the lamp out in front of him. "And for my second wish... Make everyone else forget everything that happened after Sheeptar became a Heartless."

Emerald's eyes widened as she understood what that meant. "What? Merc -?"

"Everything!" the assassin whispered, tears streaming down his face.

Emerald reached for him, but everything turned white.

S M H S

"And after that, we left. Me and Genie are the only ones who remember," Mercury muttered, hands in his pockets.

Jaune sighed. He wondered if this Genie was the same one from Sora's stories, but realized it didn't matter right now. He had more important things to deal with. "So why blame Kirito?"

Mercury laughed dryly. "Look, if he'd been there, maybe it wouldn't have happened. Maybe I wouldn't have been nearly killed, so Em never would have freaked out and lost herself to it." He leaned against one of the chimneys nearby. "One more fighter could have changed everything."

Jaune nodded, then moved to his next question"So why not tell her?"

"She was always softer than I was," he said with a shrug. "Without Cinder, her Heart's not in hurting people. If she knew what she'd done, I don't know if she'd be able to take it."

"So it's just because you love her?" Jaune asked.

Mercury didn't even deny it. "With all my Heart. She makes me better? That's what you'd say," he explained sadly. He laughed after a moment's thought. "Not that she'll ever know."

Jaune shook his head. Gone was the rage of what this man had helped do to Pyrrha so long ago now, mostly because Mercury and Emerald were not the same people anymore. Both had become so much better and stronger because of the people around them, and even still did. "She should."

"Nah." Mecury pushed himself up. "Thanks for listening. I needed it."

Jaune felt blindsided by what Mercury had said. "Er... I mean..." He took a breath to steady himself. "I was just trying to do what Sora would do."

"I think you were trying to do what you'd do," Mercury responded. He shrugged. "Not my business, though." He walked past the Keyblade wielder, hands still in his pockets. "We better find out where we're headed next."

Jaune turned after him. "Tell her everything," he advised the assassin. "I'm telling you as... as a friend. You'll regret it if you don't."

"Not a chance," Mercury said, waving back at Jaune. He pocketed his hands and walked on in silence, considering his next words carefully. Finally he settled on a single word: "... Buddy."