Sell you a Bridge

by MalcolmTent6730

Have you ever gotten an email telling you you've won a free cruise? Or one for a work out that will get you ripped in ten days? Wouldn't it be crazy if those offers were legit? Well for Morgan O'Malley they can be. Spam becomes real life when his meta powers finally manifest. Hopefully the perks of the super life aren't false advertising.

59. Chapter 59

June 14th 2016 Hollow Bastion 7:00 PM EDT

We followed the ruin platforms as far as we could get rather than mount the floating islands. I had wings but most of us couldn't fly, so it seemed like a good idea to save the whole defying gravity thing for the last possible moment, since we were going to end up carrying anyone who didn't have that gift. It didn't end up being necessary. When we got to the edge of the ruins, a weird line of light arched down from the castle, slamming into the archway at the edge of the stone circle we had just reached.

As we all watched in shock, a circular platform on some kind of hook slid slowly down the line of light like it was solid, approaching slowly from the distant castle. Even for people like us, it was a weird thing to see. Zee was staring in awe as the platform slowly approached. "Ok...what the fuck is that?" She looked to her mother. "Like, do you know what that is? Because I don't know a spell that can conjure corporeal lines of light like a fucking green lantern. Maybe that's my lacking education though?"

Jim strolled up to the archway, pulling his cane from mid air and tapping it against the stone. Tapping it right THROUGH the line of light, which didn't interfere with the beam at all despite it being solid enough to support a huge slow moving platform.I saw the others all staring at him, even Kit, who had been unusually quiet, following Jim's motions worriedly. He shook his head. "Semicorporeal. It appears to only be real the the platform itself. Which is a much more impressive trick than hard light constructs. Those may be rare, but they aren't the sole province of ringbearers. This is extremely advanced magic. Morgan, give this a once over with your aura sight?"

I did, and I whistled loudly. "That...wow. That's wild. I've seen spell work that was densely packed before, but this is much more structured than anything I've seen in wards or combat magic. It's closer to computer code than normal spellcraft. It's clean too. I know code pretty well, and this is tight. I've seen a lot of coding languages and this has the feel of something that's been iterated to near flawlessness. This isn't a recent creation. Who ever invented this spent either generations or centuries perfecting it. I can see the care and focus in the lines of the aura."

As I was talking the platform came to a stop right in front of us and I exhaled loudly. "Ok. Well, we still have to get up there before dark hits, or at least, I don't want to be stuck here when theres no light. So since it seems stable I say we take the platform. We can look around inside the castle and see if we can find some magic books or something if you like. I'm sure more than one of you would love learning to cast spells like this." I shot a not so subtle glance at Zee who was staring hungrily at the platform. I was glad she'd gotten distracted.

The platform itself really was fascinating. It was a circle of dark metal, embossed with a gold symbol that looked like half moons on either side of a small diamond, both interior curves facing the middle shape, surrounded by a sun. All suspended by gold bars that would seem like a cage if they weren't far too widely spaced to contain anything, and hanging from a glowing blue crystal prism that was interacting with the line of light. The bars were golden and shaped like rose stems, complete with thorns along their length.

The sheer artistry of the thing was staggering, and as we mounted the platform and began to ascend toward the castle, I couldn't help but turn and stare back at the retreating shape of the ruins in the center of that ring of waterfalls. It was absolutely gorgeous. Turning back to the castle, I took in the place we were actually headed. It was pretty mindblowing too. Very clean lines, lots of marble and bronze pipes. Sort of a steampunk post modern aesthetic if I had to couch it in earth terms, though not exactly that.

At the top of the lift line, we stepped onto a huge overhanging marble balcony, and rather than move any further, we all stopped. I turned to the others. "Alright. I can't say if this is safer or anything, but at least we're on the actual structure. I say we take a second to look around and make sure we aren't about to get jumped by something before moving on. Anyone have any ideas for what to do from here? My plan is basically 'go inside, call my daughter' and I'm definitely open to suggestions."

Jim's head was drifting back and forth as he took the place in, and I waited for my mentor to make his decision, but eventually he just sighed and shook his head. "No. I don't see any obvious spots we should examine. Getting inside before dark seems a good idea. Do you see any traces of danger in the aura of this place?"

That was a good question. I stared into the aura around us, paying extra attention to the details to try to suss out what was happening. "I...do? I think. I can barely tell. This place is swirling with dark energy and stagnation, but that could just be a function of the world we're in. Not to mention the magic wrapped around the castle is getting in the way. That hyper structured form of magic script is baked into the stones of this place. It's probably how it even exists, given the decomposition this world seems to be suffering."

Thinking about it like that, I should have figured out that no world this damaged would be able to support a structure this stable. The ruins themselves were the best evidence of that, and the wear and tear around the edges made a lot more sense. To be protected from that kind of effect, the defenses on this place were clearly top notch, and I could see a serious amount of power when I looked at the stones around us, I just couldn't really see much else. I would have no fucking chance of recreating these wards or this castle without literal years studying the aura and learning this magic style either.

Still, with no clear path, we could only go inside and try to figure out our way in by searching. So we set off to look. We followed the balcony around, coming to a spot around the corner where we found some weird eight pointed crystal statues. I reached out to touch one once I read the aura to make sure it was safe, and another of the lines of light popped up, another platform lowering from above to stop in front of us. The line of light went right through the bottom of the platform, spearing through that same kind of blue gem.

We climbed on, me going first because wings, and I was fine so the others joined me and we ascended into the air, heading for a higher balcony. The sight from here was even more amazing, taking my breath away as I watched the castle's base fall away. When we reached the higher balcony. We stepped off and suddenly...we weren't alone. Black creatures of living shadow rose from the ground, surrounding us, yellow eyes blazing from their darkened forms as they glared up at their newest trespassers.

The others got into defensive positions, readying weapons, but I just raised a hand to stop them. I called to Tartarus, the black metal filling my hand, and when I held the keyblade up, I felt a connection with these things. Not as strong as with my soulless, or with Morana, but a connection all the same. Sadly, that connection wasn't enough to control them, simply to understand the fundamental truth that none of my friends could actually kill these things. They couldn't be harmed by mundane means.

They all attacked, and with my speed, power, and reflexes I shredded them before they could even get close. My domain spread out, allowing me to flicker in and out of existence instantly wherever I needed to be to intercept them, sometimes a dozen of me and sometimes none at all. I winced when I came to a stop, I hadn't mastered that yet, it was still developing, and my head ached at the effort of using my power so directly.

"Sorry." I said when I was done. "They aren't really smart enough to scare off. Not at this level. They're not sapient. Lets go inside. We might need to fight more, but I'm pretty sure the outside of this place will swarm when it gets dark." I recognized the familiar traces of the magic here now. Magic like I'd woven in my summonings and into my daughter. The magic of the void. The connection between heartless and the void was complicated, but it DID exist. After all, what were heartless but a void inside our hearts.

We finally made it inside after a few more platform trips and some more heartless attacks, arriving in a well appointed library. The place was absolutely huge. With several criss crossing shelves and a large circular staircase wrapping around it on one side. orange light flooded the room through stained glass windows and a chandelier hung from the ceiling supported by what looked like golden pipes made to look like roots that covered the ceiling.

I turned to the others. "Alright, the aura in here shows a bit less of the darkness that I think enables heartless to spawn. Block off the doors, we'll spend the night in here. Zee, feel free to comb through the books, I'm sure there's some fun magic in here. Hell, any of you can if you want to. I'm going to give Rana a call and see if she can help me figure out how the fuck to get us home. She should be able to reach us here easily enough with me to lock onto."

My girlfriend looked a bit unhappy she wouldn't be in on that meeting, but I shot her a smile. "Don't worry, I won't send our girl off before you can see her and introduce her to her grandmother. She's spent the last month or so with my mom, so it only seems fair she spend some time with you and Sindella." I felt a surge of bubbly joy from the bond and leaned down to give Zee a quick peck on the lips. "Alright, go do your research, I'll send her over after we talk."

She kissed me back hungrily, yanking me back down against her as I tried to pull away. When I finally got loose, my eyes a little glazed, she winked and patted me on the ass. "Just so you don't get too used to expecting me to entertain myself. Just because we haven't had as much time together lately doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about it lately." She leaned over and grabbed Drea, yanking our goddess against her. "You owe us a date night sometime soon. Or we're just going to have on without you."

I leaned down to kiss her again, then kissed Drea even more deeply, earning a pout from Zee as I made a point of paying her extra attention. I winked at my sorceress before stepping back. "I'll keep it in mind." Then I wandered off to a secluded corner of the library where I could find an open spot, and reached out through the bond for Rana. My daughter felt the intent, and there was a burst of roiling shadow as she bolted through, diving into my arms for a hug. My eyes widened as I realized she was crying, and I held her close. "It's alright sweetie. I'm here." I guess the bond had done something weird when we came through after all.

June 14th 2016 Hollow Bastion 7:00 PM EDT

"Daddy!" Morana's voice was cracked with despair and relief. "You're ok! Are mom and mama here? Wait, no I can feel them now. I couldn't before...like you were all missing. It felt terrible. How do normal kids put up with not being able to feel their parents in their heart." She clung to me so tightly I suspected before my godhood it would have damaged me, at least outside my armor. Since I was wearing the suit and WAS a god now, I saw no reason to interrupt her.

I put my arms around my daughter and squeezed her back for a second, just enjoying the feeling of having her back with me for a minute before letting her go and stepping back, leaving my hands on her shoulders. "They're fine, Rana. What's going on? We went through some kind of portal, but I could feel you just fine so we assumed you all wouldn't worry too much. Are you saing we were cut off from you somehow?"

That was...weird. I had no clue why we wouldn't be within reach of her through the bonds when we could feel her just fine. Something about the dark world we were in? But then why didn't it my connection? Did it affect the girls? I'd never even asked. I'd assumed since I could feel Rana they could too, but maybe they'd been cut off too.

I stroked her hair gently. "It's ok. Everything is fine. What's been happening back home? Is everything alright? Is your grandmother ok? How about Tina?" I wasn't TOO worried about Darkseid managing to get his hands on the former fury, but with Gojo out of town there wasn't any way to be certain.

She just nodded. "Grandma is fine. I was just with her before you called me. Grandpa Gojo had to go on a trip, so she's had us staying with her to help with Hana. Even Cassie got permission to stay over. Miss. Helena and Grandma get along pretty well, but she's really strict most of the time." She trailed off after that sentence as she started to look around. "Daddy...what is this place? It feels...weird. Familiar maybe? Like I've been here before even though I know I haven't. I don't think I like it."

"Really?" I probably should have expected the castle swarming with heartless to have some connection to my daughter, but I really hadn't. "What does it feel like? And can you feel any specific place nearby that seems important?" I wasn't going to go out hunting around here for secrets right now, but any lead would be nice. "Also, how easy can you access dark corridors?"

I'd been poking at the dark near here, and the more I did it, the more I started to get a really bad feeling. Protecting my friends from it would be tough, especially over a distance, but I felt a sort of...malice, in the darkness. Like something was waiting. I was mostly going by feel, but I was pretty sure I shouldn't try to open any corridors personally. I felt like going through someone else's was fine but that kind of assumed Rana, the only other person I knew of who actually COULD open corridors wasn't having the same problem.

She furrowed her brow for a second, and a small puddle of darkness formed on the floor, only to wink out. She shrugged. "No problems I can sense. Why? Are you having trouble?" I nodded, and she frowned thoughtfully. "That's weird. My power to access the corridors comes from you right? I doesn't make sense I can get into them and you can't. Why would there be a difference?"

"Shit." I said with a grimace. "Bar-I mean, the B-guy. The darkness seems to belong to him. If he's looking for me right now..." I trailed off. My powers would sometimes pick up useful tidbits based on falsehoods. The lie that my only way out was safe was a big one, which explained why I had twigged to it. Still, it was far from ideal. It also implied that I shouldn't be using my abilities in the dark, it would be too easy to track me, which meant protecting them while Rana transported us was out. We would need to research some method of defending someone from the dark.

That thought drew my eyes to...well, everything nearby. This was a library in a void bound castle sitting in the middle of a dark ocean, clearly connected to the heartless. The owners had been magical geniuses, and this was probably the best place to actually DO that research. Any of these books might have information we could use, which meant I was going to need to do some reading. Luckily I'd done this dance before. Between speed reading and perfect recall, I was a book reading machine when I wanted to be.

I sighed at the realization that we wouldn't be going anywhere in the short term. I'd check my email of course, but chances were decent if there was anything that could help I couldn't afford it right now anyway. These people had access to the darkness enough that heartless were infesting the place. I was pretty sure they would have some kind of countermeasure to the stuff that I could use to protect my loved ones. I squeezed my daughter's shoulder. "Alright, let's go see your mothers, they'll be furious if I don't bring you over at the soonest possible opportunity. We also have someone to introduce you to."

We walked back the way I'd come, following the familiar auras into the stacks until I came to a small table surrounded by shelves, as which sat my girls and my mother-in-law, each with a big stack of books. Drea's stack was less chonky than Zee and Sindella's but that was hardly strange. When we got close I knocked on the shelf next to me to get their attention. "Hey. Nerds. If you're done with your stupid book learning I brought someone to visit." My tone was teasing, and got an eye roll from my sorceress, until those eyes rose enough to fix on the face of my companion.

"RANA!" Zee yelled, bolting from her seat to rush over and grab our daughter. I could feel the relief and joy through the bond as they clung to each other. Zee had know Rana was coming, but I think it had blindsided her how much seeing our girl affected her. I knew it had blindsided me. It was easy to forget that the bond I shared with my daughter was forged from my connection to two of the people I loved most.

Speaking of people I loved, I looked around. "Hey has anyone seen Kit? I've been so swept up in all the crazy I hadn't had a chance to talk to her. I wanted to make sure she was alright. That whole mess must have been awful." I felt awful for not even checking on her yet, but this insanity had taken up quite a bit of my attention. This place was weird and dangerous, and that took precedence over politeness, or even emotional health, at least in the short term.

Sindella sighed. "That poor girl. She left to wander the stacks. James went after her, I think he wants to look out for her. He blames himself for what happened to her, despite knowing how silly that is." Her eyes flicked to Rana. "Now. If you don't mind, perhaps you could introduce me to my granddaughter? Admittedly a strange thing for me to say given my relative age and how young my daughter is, but I'm still very excited to meet her." She gave my daughter, who was being crushed by her own child, a welcoming smile.

I made a promise to myself to track down Kit right after this, before any research got done. I'd already done enough damage by putting off talking to my cousin. Still, it wasn't like she was in the wrong to ask. I put a hand on Rana's shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. "Of course. Morana O'malley, this is Sindella Zatara. Your mother's mother. I didn't think you would ever get a chance to meet her but it seems like our lives can sometimes be crazy in a good way, as well as all the bad ones."

Rana's eyes widened in shock as she stared at Sindella like she was a ghost. It occurred to me that she'd inherited part of Zee's heart, and that Sindella's loss had deeply affected my sorceress. Judging by the sheen of tears in her eyes, Rana had inherited some of those issues, and was feeling them resolved now as she met her grandmother for the first time. Zee released our daughter and stepped back, pushing her towards Sindella. "Go on baby. Go meet your grandma. I've been telling her all about you."

As they approached each other slowly, I leaned down to kiss Zee and then Drea softly. "I'm going to go look for Kit. Once we're done talking though, I have some research directions I could use some help with, to prepare us for getting the hell out of here." Zee looked excited, but didn't question me as I walked away, content to hear about it later. I was glad, I'd been putting this off, I think. Not consciously, but I'd been focusing so hard on my tasks that I completely blocked out Kit, and looking back on that it was easy to see it was a defense mechanism.

I silently cursed my ability. Being able to see through lies was fine, but being able to see through your own lies was shitty, even if it only really worked as confirmation once I figured it out myself. Tracking them down was simple enough. Jim was with Kit and her boyfriend Eddie, sitting at a table, reading quietly. My mentor's aura looked relaxed and happy. Being around her was soothing for him, being able to see she was safe, if still slightly battered. When I arrived, I waited for a second and then cleared my throat.

Kit looked up in surprise, and when she saw me, her eyes widened. "Morgan." She said, voice thick. "Hey. You looking for a specific book? We have more than a few piled up here. The old ghost is still a total nerd." She gave Jim a wan smile. "But I'm sure even he won't mind sharing the work load."

I shook my head. "Eddie, Jim, can you two give us a minute? I want to talk to my cousin." Kit flinched, and I could see the guilt and self-loathing in her aura. We might not hold what happened in the dungeon against her, but she held it against herself. She thought we hated her. That I hated her. Even if she was grateful we came to save her, she thought it was just out of obligation, and there was a healthy dose of guilt for putting us in Neron's crosshairs too.

Eddie meanwhile looked deeply unhappy at the idea, but Jim put a hand on his arm and squeezed in warning. The demonkin wasn't family, and if Jim wasn't part of this, he knew it was going to be Falcones only. Kit nodded reassuringly at him when she saw his reticence, giving him an encouraging smile that I would have actually believed if it wasn't for her aura. He gritted his teeth but nodded, standing up and stalking away to wait somewhere else. Jim followed after silently.

I turned to my cousin. "You guys are pretty serious. Nonverbal communication like that requires a lot of trust." I walked towards kit, and she tensed up. I didn't slow down though, walking up to her directly and stopping in front of her, looking her in the eyes. Before she could do anything I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around her, and she gave a surprised squeak as I pulled her into a tight hug. "I'm so sorry Kitrina, and I'm so glad you're ok. Everything was all my fault." She went limp, clinging to me tightly, and then she started to cry.

June 15th 2016 Hollow Bastion 10:00 AM EDT

I spent a few hours catching up with Kit after that. The first hour was basically a guilt fest where we each tried to claim responsibility for what had happened. Eventually Zee and Rana came and found us apologizing back and forth and my girlfriend had no trouble telling us both to just shut up and hug it out. Which we did. once that was done the rest of the night was spent going back and forth telling each other stories and binge reading every book we could find before taking turns napping.

In the morning I spent twenty five thousand points to get access to a "groundbreaking new delivery app that could deliver anywhere within 30 minutes for no delivery fee with only a single yearly payment of five hundred dollars" . It was a fragrant abused of my power in the best possible way, and my ass got donuts for everyone. The food literally appeared from empty air on the library tables and I had a half dozen jellies and a steaming cup of coffee to wake me up. I'd actually been ignoring this particular email for months because of the high point cost, but delivering ANYWHERE was definitely worth the price.

When we finished eating though, I was surprised to see John, who I hadn't noticed hanging around, slam down a book in front of me without a triumphant grin as he snatched up and bit into an eclair. "Hah!" He said, still chewing. "You fancy pants magic types are always looking for ancient forbidden secrets and whatnot. Street punks like me know that nothing gets done around a place this swanky without some minions running around doing the doing." He pointed to the page. "Read that."

I did, scanning the page as I resisted the urge to tell the demon summoner that he was much more of a 'fancy magic person' than I was. I was distracted by that when I read through the page, then scanned it again to be sure. I started flipping through the book rapidly, committing pages to memories. "Are there more of these?" I asked in agitation. If there were, we could be onto something fantastic.

He grinned, gesturing for me to follow. "Bet your arse there are. Dozens of the damn things. Follow me." I stood up and trailed after him, stuffing an extra donut in my mouth to hold it as I picked up a second with my non coffee holding hand. The book I shoved under my arm as we walked, and Kit, Zee, Drea, and Rana followed behind me. Jim, Eddie, Sindella, Suzie, and Taylor had come to get food and retreated back to their research tables, each one chasing a different lead in this absolutely massive library.

John had, oddly, found this little gem in a book shelf full of research notes. Well, research assistant notes. Someone here had been responsible for doing research into magic, and the notes were the collected manuscripts of the six lab assistants of the guy who ran the scientific research department here. Some guy named Ansem the Wise. Aforementioned Ansem was apparently working on projects related to the darkness permeating the castle, go figure, and the lab assistants had take consistent notes of every attempt.

Most useful to us in this case was the notes from a guy named Ienzo who was particularly concerned with the safety of himself and his fellow assistants. He'd spent a large portion of the book noting down different safety features in use during experiments and where they could be found and accessed. He hadn't listed the actual item we needed in the book John found, but he HAD referenced it as part of a previous document. Specifically, a special protective covering that could keep off the harmful effects of darkness when traveling through the substance.

I was definitely planning to learn more about this shit too. They had done a LOT more with corridors than I had, and I was looking forward to taking the notes with me. For now though, I arrived at the shelf and started flipping through the neatly organized books that had been divided into sections corresponding to the assistant in question. It took me a few to find Ienzo, but once I did I memorized the whole damn section in about twenty minutes, and by the time I was finished I had the information I was looking for.

When I looked up I almost fell over with a yelp as I saw Zee leaning right in my face. I pushed her back with a laugh. "Damn it Zee. You're such a nerd, I was planning to tell you what's up, I just got distracted by my research. Can you seriously not sit still for fifteen fucking minutes?" It was impossible to stop the grin that crawled across my face at my fanatical magic girl research nerd and her rabid enthusiasm for the mystic arts.

She crossed her arms under her breasts (which I was fucking POSITIVE she was doing to distract me from the subject) and pouted cutely. "You know, relationships are about communication. You can ask Drea. You're supposed to share with me and tell me things. That's the key to a healthy and well balanced love life." Her tone was sulky enough to make it clear that this was pure justification.

I still felt the need to point out the obvious. "That's about emotional honesty and you know it. Our relationship isn't dependent on my willingness to share my arcane secrets with you." She raised an eyebrow at that, and I hesitated slightly. "Well, not completely dependent on that. Shut up. You'd still love me even if I didn't give you magic info and you know it. At least I hope you would."

"Fine." She huffed out, tone so dramatic and put upon you'd have thought I just asked her to push a boulder up a hill. "I guess I love you for other stuff, but seriously. Give me the dirt. It's super mean of you to hold out me about magic." Her pout was still there, but it had turned pleading and her eyes got wide and reflective as she somehow managed to tilt her head down and look up at me through her lashes while I was sitting on the floor. Damn. That look was pretty dangerous. She could weaponize that shit.

I sighed and tossed her one of the books, open to a specific page I flipped to from memory. "TLDR, there are some weird ass coats in this castle that can let use travel through the dark corridors without any of the rest of you getting meme hazarded into drooling psychopaths by the conceptual corruption between worlds. They were made on site, so there should be extras around if we can find the caches Ienzo mentioned. I'm only running into one problem. This asshole wrote the notes for people who lived here, so they refer to all the places by NAME."

"Oh." She said with annoyance. "We don't know what any of the areas here are called. There are bound to be a few references in the notes, but coordinating all that data and cross referencing the placement to draw out a map is going to be a huge pain in the ass. I don't suppose you can cheat us one?" I raised an eyebrow, taking a long and meaningful sip of my coffee, and she sighed. "Yeah, ok. Fair enough. Food was the priority. Speaking of which can we get Gianzano's for dinner? Mom loved their eggplant parm when I was a kid"

I raised an eyebrows. "Is it considered a stereotype that you grew up eating pricy italian food? I've always wondered but I never wanted to ask because of the whole dead mom thing." I sent an impression of teasing and love across the bond so she knew it was a joke, and luckily I felt a warm reassurance and amusement in return.

My sorceress just rolled her eyes. "You certainly didn't have a problem with my choice of cuisine when you were pawing at my ass for most of our first date." She turned around and wiggled aforementioned ass at me. "You want the booty, you need to feed it booty food." She shot me a wink over her shoulder and I rolled my own eyes back at her before blowing her a kiss, which she caught and pressed to her cheek.

I heard a groan of agony from off to the side and looked and a cringing Rana sitting to one side covering her ears. "Gross, gross, gross. See, this is why other kids are lucky. Some of their parents act like horny teenagers, but my parents ARE horny teenagers. You're both absolutely disgusting. Can we go get these coats and go home please? Because dad gets extra creepy when mom brings up her butt, and I'd really rather not need any more therapy than I already do."

Clicking my tongue, I glared at my daughter. "I know you didn't learn that from Tina. Cassie is a terrible influence on you. There's nothing wrong with your mother and I being affectionate. But fine, we can go look for the coats. Before that though, we need to make a map. I'm not running around this place like a dumbass, looking for individual landmarks referenced in the books. We have literal volumes of information here, as well as the experience of places we've already been and a view of the castle from the outside to establish size and shape. Go get the others and have them meet us here."

Rana rolled her eyes. "Yes dad. Try not to perv on mom too much once I leave. The poor guy in the trenchcoat doesn't need to watch you two be shameless." I stuck my tongue out at her, because flipping off my own daughter didn't exactly feel like something I should do.

Once she left I started flipping through the books, looking for any pictures or diagrams that might make this easier. Even some kind of small area map would be fine. Anything we could use for a baseline. I found nothing like that. I did start finding more references to rooms. Just casual references, comments about placement or and things like that. Normally that wouldn't have been useful. Visual stimuli was tough to guess at from commentary.

I had experience at this though, and the tools to do it, in a way. I closed my mind, and conjured the outer body trance. When I was in the darkness I got to work. The first thing I did was to dig up every comment and reference to the library itself. I knew what that looked like in real life, so comparing the two would let me understand how the others visualized space. Then I created a shadow model of the room inside the trance where I knew there was no limit on resources.

There was a lot of data, years worth of notes and commentary to sort through, but I had time and ability. I was ready and able to make this work. My void magic training had actually helped with this immensely. Void is all about space and structure in some ways, and the comments I was using as my base were simpler than the complex void formuli by far. This was like easy mode.

Once I had the model done and had used it to derive the descriptive styles of each apprentice, I removed myself from the trance, took out a piece of paper (by shifting one of the books with my power to have a convenient blank page at the back I could tear out) and then started to sketch out a two dimensional representation of the room we were in to form a foundation for the map.

As I worked, the others came back. I passed them specific books that I knew had comments we needed and had them scan over them. I was the one who was drawing the map, but that was fine, my manual dexterity was staggering, especially as a god. I could do a fine job on it. With enough people and a good place to start, we all settled in and got to work. This would be a pain in the ass, but that was fine. Every good party needed a mini map.

June 15th 2016 Hollow Bastion 1:00 PM EDT

Before we left the library to explore, I gathered everyone together. We could have left right after that, but I made everyone stop as I turned to Rana. "Ok. This place is teeming with heartless, I won't insult you by comparing you to them, it would be like comparing a full person to a single cell organism, but there is a connection, and more specifically, there's only really one way to kill them."

Morana wheeled on me with an expression halfway between a glare and a pout. "You're STILL trying to sideline me? Tell me you didn't summon me to another world to hang out with grandma and my moms will we let daddy go out and do all the fighting."

I gave her an innocent grin. "Don't be silly. Your mothers rarely call me daddy in mixed company." It was mean given her little outburst earlier, but I couldn't resist the joke, and the grimaces on the faces of Sindella and Taylor only made it funnier.

Rana squeezed her eyes shut and covered her ears. "Ew, ew, ew. That's so gross. Please never tell me anything like that again." She paused. "And stop trying to distract me! Am I going to be allowed to fight or not?" She literally stomped her foot in annoyance, and then blushed as the ground shook a bit and dust rained down from the ceiling above us. That got her a glare from everyone else as we nervously check the integrity of the hallway, and she averted her eyes to avoid the stares.

I rolled my own eyes. "Well, maybe if you didn't throw fits before I finished explaining things, it wouldn't take so long to get through them. As for the joke..." I shrugged. "No regrets. Your face was hilarious. Now. The reason I mention the heartless and their immunity to most harm, is specifically because you can do something about that." I paused. "Probably. I think. The point is, with you here, we might have not just one, but FOUR keyblade wielders."

Artemis cut in. "Can you explain the math on that for those of us in the cheap seats? Because it sounds like you're talking about a second one, which, weird heart stuff aside, I kind of get given Rana is your daughter. But who is going to get the other two? Because if it isn't decided yet, dibs." She raised her hand confidently, ignoring the annoyed look Wally shot her for not including him in that little lobbying attempt.

"That's a good question." I said, pointing at my surrogate sister. "To answer your questions in reverse order: first off, no. And secondly the other two will be for Zee and Drea. As Rana's mothers, her heart is made up of equal sections of all three of our own, kept stable and connected to the three of us in a way that wouldn't be possible without my ability. Heart stuff IS the reason Rana can almost definitely call a keyblade, but what's less certain is that her heart is, as I said, connected to her mothers' so it's possible once she gets hers they can use them from the same logic."

Jim made a noise of understanding from off to one side. "Of course. It's a possibility, which is where your power shines. Uncertainty makes any lie more believable. Since you don't KNOW they won't get one, you can make it happen even if it normally wouldn't. Am I to assume you can manage this? Not to belittle you, but this seems like a fairly impressive bit of power to throw around."

I waved it off. "I'll be fine. I'm a markedly more powerful entity than I was last time you saw me try a trick like this. Trust me, current me can handle much more than I used to." I didn't mention that it was still a massive strain. Whatever I was now, be it god or ghost-devil, it wasn't enough to easily wield my full power like I'd hoped. I still had plenty of growing to do. It was plenty to get this done though, I was sure. I held out a hand and conjured Tartarus, showing the keyblade to my daughter.

"Okay." I said calmly. "This will be the easy part. No effort from me needed. Rana, you can feel our connection right?" She gave me a solemn nod. "Good. I want you to reach through it. Touch the bond we share and follow it deep into my heart. I have the keyblade summoned. I want you to trace that connection as it pulls on my soul, and once you see how it works, I want you to try to pull it back through the bond and connect it directly to your heart."

It probably sounded like gibberish to most of the people there, but Rana understood. She closed her eyes, inhaling and exhaling, and then I felt her reach into our bond. She was much less sure of herself than I was, or than Zee or Drea when they would send things into our bond for reassurance or affection. Rana felt like a toddled clawing through a tub of mud, and I probably would have winced at the crudeness if this hadn't been such a serious moment.

Eventually though, her hands grabbed onto the connection between me and Tartarus and pulled. One would suspect it would feel weird or wrong to have that disturbed. One would be incorrect. The connection stretched, pulling like taffy out of my heart and into the section of it inside Rana, where it seamlessly anchored itself with no real problems. It was being stretched technically, but also it was in one piece because the heart it was connected to was still just mine, though not only the one I had inside me.

With a grunt of effort, Rana held out a hand, and eyes still closed, she YANKED on the connection. That DID cause me to wince, and I made a note to teach her some finesse. But it didn't really matter. A whirl of darkness rolled over her hand and from the dark emerged a...thing. It was a keyblade, that was clear, but not like mine. It had a pair of metal bat wings surrounding a purple center piece. Instead of a cylindrical body the blade was flat and about the size of my forarm, with a length of chain running down the dark metal to a set of teeth that all looked like one solid shape.

Her eyes snapped open, drawn to the new keyblade as she swung it lightly in an x pattern to get a feel for the weight. She stared down at the thing with reverence. "Oblivion." She whispered. As if the sound of her own whisper had woken her from a chance, she jerked her eyes up. "I...sorry. Oblivion. That's the name of my keyblade. This is...wow dad, you didn't do it justice. This feels weird. Not in a bad way but...how do I even describe this."

I knew what she meant. "Like it's the key that can unlock your truest self, a pillar that holds up your heart, and a shield that will protect it from all harm. I know. It's intense and kind of hard to describe, which is why I never really bothered to try." I shrugged. "Other people won't really get it. Still, that's the easy part out of the way. Now it's time to see exactly how much my power can do. Drea, you have the strongest heart of us all, both for god reasons and who you are. Why don't you try it next?"

My goddess nodded and did the same thing as our daughter. She closed her eyes and reached into Rana's heart. Instead of going all the way into mine, she just grabbed the connection in the section of my daughter's heart that belonged to me and tried to drag it through to the one that belonged to her. It was a MUCH shorter distance and should have been far easier. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

I felt a serious strain as she tried to pull the connection, and she had to dig in and really haul it towards her. It felt like something was tearing in me, and I would have stopped if I'd been anyone else. But I wasn't. I reached out with the part of me that controlled my power, so much more durable and powerful since my ascension, and I told the power a lie. I told it this was fine, that this was normal. It was no different than what Rana had done and it should be good and go with Drea obediently.

The strain on my heart lessened as the strain on my mind began to grow. I had been right, I COULD handle this, but it was extremely tough to manage it. The strain was greater than anything I'd ever done. I closed my eyes hard. "Zee, help her pull it through and then keep it going. If we stop I don't think I can do this again." My body was shaking, muscles trembling in effort and strain as sweat poured off my. My head hurt, but less than it would have before even if I could have survived.

I could feel the biggest benefit of godhood. My whole body was maid to channel this force, not just my mind. I'd been reshaped, and while this level of power was still an absurd amount, it was also being spread out across much more of me than before. The strain lessened as all three of us gave everything we had, first through Drea's section, then through Zee's. Once a full circle was finally made I was barely able to stand, but when it made the circuit something clicked and all the strain just...vanished.

I felt matching connections form in Zee and Drea's actual hearts, their connection mirroring my own. All three of us connected to Rana by our own unique keyblade connection. The last bit took a huge effort, but once it was done the strain stopped. I fell to my knees, head still foggy and blazing with pain. I felt something touch me on the shoulder and looked up at Zee, staring down at me in concern, Drea was on my other side, and I saw them look terrified until I reached up and wiped the blood from my nose.

However, that wasn't all I saw. Each of them had a keyblade in hand. I grinned widely. "Fuck yes!" I Said, wincing at my own voice as I felt the shout claw at my sensitive ears. "Ow. Ok no yelling. But you both did it. What are their names?" I knew they would have been told. All keyblades knew their own names.

Drea held up hers, a white metal key that looked in some ways like the opposite of Oblivion. It was long and white, with an angel wing guard and teeth like a blue and yellow starburst. "Oathkeeper." She said proudly. "It's wonderful. I've never seen anything like it. Or felt it. Channeling my power through this thing...it's perfectly suited for mental attacks or illusions."

Zee held up her own keyblade. It was sporting angel wings too, though the shaft of it was a blue cylinder of curved metal speckled with stars. The end was a single star and moon surrounded by a half circle of purple spikes. "This one is Star Seeker. It's a magic keyblade. Like...all it does is enhance magic, but it does it well. It also desperately wants to learn more magic. I love it so much!" She hurled herself into my arms, and only her dropping and dismissing the thing in a flash of light prevented me from being skewered.

I should have probably been surprised by the light themes of the girls keyblades, but I wasn't. In fact, it made perfect sense. Keyblades didn't belong to the dark, they were balanced. While Rana and I had darkness in our nature, the girls very much did not. Zee was an elf demigoddess of lightning and purification among other things, and Drea was from New Genesis. I climbed to my feet with a groan, letting my armor flow over me as I did. We could talk about things as we walked. For now, it was time to begin the search for our ticket home.

June 15th 2016 Hollow Bastion 1:00 PM EDT

It took us a fucking hour to find the coats. And most of that was walking time. Even with only the four of us. Seriously, I had massively underestimated the damage that my girls would be able to do with keyblades. Zee's Star Seeker gave a massive boost to every fucking spell she cast, which, considering her already freakishly high Intelligence vis a vis leveling in the dungeon, meant she could essentially cast endlessly. All she needed to do was toss out an underpowered softball spell and the Star Seeker turned it into a fucking RPG blast or something.

The oddest part of it was that Zee had started using new spells halfway in, and not ones I recognized. She told me apparently Star Seeker had used to belong to a master wizard with a penchant for teaching and that her keyblade was actually showing her new magic she could use. She insisted we could all use the spells, and had tried to teach them to us as we walked, though it looked like it would take a bit more than an hour for us to learn. I had plans to spend time in the outer body trance to learn the spells. Some of them sounded awesome, though she'd only managed Thunder so far.

Drea hardly used her illusions in combat, mostly because her power was aimed at a longer wind up time to be effective, a weakness heavily mitigated by Oathkeeper. Between herself and Zee, anything we came across was basically asking to die. Drea would lock them down with an illusion and Zee would fucking glass them. It was honestly kind of terrifying, and made me wonder if I hadn't been underutilizing Tartarus.

Of course, those were only the ones that we even managed to get to. Rana was ranging out ahead of us with my shadow abilities, assassinating every heartless she could find before we reached it. The only reason we had even gotten to fight was because there were so damn many of them and she was more suited for single combat. Still, it was damn impressive to watch them work.

Which was how we ended up standing in front of a secret compartment I'd found with aura sight, staring down at a whole bunch of really edgy looking coats. "Ok, I'm so glad I don't have to wear those." I said stoically. "My reputation as an edgelord is already bad enough among people who know about me. If I show up in Gotham wearing that I'm going to be permanently branded as the edgiest human being who has ever lived."

Zee held one up with a grimace. "It is kind of...much. The coat itself isn't bad, nice lines, but the hood is kind of over the top." She cut off my next words with a glare and a pointed finger. "Make a comment about that being a pun and you aren't going to touch me for a year." The twitch of her lips belied that for the empty threat it was, but despite my grin I held up my hands in mock surrender. She gave a regal nod.

Rana picked one of them up and held it in front of her. "What? I think they look cool. Kind of dark and dangerous. People would think we were all mysterious when we showed up out of the shadows with these." Her face looked pensive, and I only had to look at the expression on Zee's face to curse my daughter's dark and edgy little soul. Where did she learn this from? I'd fought against the edge since I first got my power. How could my own spawn embrace the darkness like this?

I cleared my throat. Averting my gaze as I responded to Zee's unspoken accusation. "Ok, this isn't on me. People have their own tastes. Besides, how do you know she got it from me." I glanced back at her carefully, meeting her accusatory eyes. "Really. I just fell into my image, you two are the ones who dated a total edgelord. Maybe you secretly have a goth fetish? Ever think about that?"

Drea had started giggling lightly as Rana picked up the coat and finally burst out laughing, collapsing against the wall as gales of laughter wracked her body. All three of us glared at her, and it just set her off even harder, sliding down the stone nearly crying from mirth as she pointed at the three of us. "I-I'm sorry. It's just...your faces. All three of you. Like mirror images. It just hit me all at once." She gasped a few times until she calmed down. "But if it helps she might have gotten it from me." She gave me a once over. "I always thought the tall dark and handsome thing was sexy."

Rana grimaced. "Yuck. And on that note, regardless of how these look, we should get them back to the others. They're holed up in the library still, and while mom's shield should be plenty to keep them safe I'm betting Grandma and Uncle John are getting worried." I raised an eyebrow at that. "What? That's what mom calls him. And grand uncle John just sounds weird."

I snickered. "Taylor's sad pining after Sindella aside, we should definitely get back. Once everyone is geared up we can all go the fuck home. I miss Gotham. I want some Gotham style pizza. Or maybe a sub." Zee nodded emphatically. I smirked at Drea. "We also haven't gone for bubble tea in a while. We can stop for some when we get back." My goddess's eyes lit up at the statement, excitement coursing over the bond in the cutest possible way. Drea may have seen it all, but she still reacted to bubble tea like an excited kid.

The trip back to the library was much easier than the search, since A: we knew where we were going, and B: none of the heartless we fought on the way were still alive to bother us. When we finally got back to the library Zee took down the shields with zero effort and we filed in to pass out the coats. Artemis took hers and held it up, staring at it in horror. "Ok...no. I'm not wearing this. I'll take the soul corrupting insanity. This is hideous. I look like a star wars nerd dressing up to go to a movie premiere."

Wally, who had changed into his happily at super speed, gave her a betrayed look through the opening of his ridiculous hood. She noticed his gaze and winced. "I mean...yay, safety gear. It's always a good idea to wear protective clothing in dangerous situations." Her shoulders slumped in defeat as she spoke, but she clearly worried more about offending her live in boyfriend than she did looking stupid. She glared over at me. "Shouldn't you be wearing one? The B-guy is looking for you right? Shouldn't you like...cloak yourself for the trip?"

I snickered at her straw grasping. "Nope, sorry. Not how it works. He's a god, not a universal consciousness. If I use the ability myself he'll notice it for sure, but since I'm catching a ride on the Rana express, there won't be any way for him to see me. I'm safe from the influence of the darkness, so no coat for me." I gave her a sadistic grin and a thumbs up. "But you are going to look absolutely adorable in your little raincoat sis. Don't worry. I won't even take any pictures." Of course, I had perfect recall and the manual dexterity to sketch everything I'd ever seen from memory, but I didn't see a need to mention that.

Kit giggled. "Oh gods, I forgot how much you two bicker. It's good to see some things haven't changed. You know, I used to think you guys would end up together." She winced and looked at my girls and Wally. "Like, before they had other partners I mean."

I snorted. "Please. Artemis and I are far too similar to ever date. We'd have killed each other within a week. Plus she's not my type. I like my women with curves. She's flat as a board." I was already moving when I finished talking, avoiding the bolt of lightning sparking from the fingers of mt best friend's fingers. Her eyes were blazing with irritation and she leveled her hand for another blast before Wally grabbed her and started talking her down.

Not that I was bothered. Artemis didn't have self-esteem issues about her appearance. I'd drooled over her enough at the beginning of our friendship that she knew I found her attractive. I just liked to mess with her. She eventually huffed out a sigh and rolled her eyes. "You're such a dick. Also I am NOT flat. Your girlfriends are just built like porn stars." She stuck her tongue out at me, which I could tell from her aura was her way of telling me we were all good.

Jim rapped his cane on the ground. "Alright children. As much fun as your sniping is, we should be going. I'm still not convinced these coats will work, but I'd rather die in truth than be stuck here listening to your pubescent nattering much longer." Artemis and I both shot him offended looks, which he ignored, but he wasn't wrong. Better to get going while we had our spirits up. I gestured for everyone to put on the coats, which they did with a not insubstantial amount of grumbling, and once that was done I gave Rana the nod.

She exhaled, a long slow breath, before she reached into herself and touched the dark. I'd opened corridors plenty of times before, but the Nightside was the first time I moved so many people at once, and it was a markedly different experience. It took time and concentration so I left my daughter to her work. The dark began to spill from under her like liquid, rolling out to encompass the floor below us and licking up like some sort of strange fog in tendrils that lapped at the bottom of the coats. I made sure everyone synched the hoods as closed as possible like they said to in the notes.

With one final push, Rana called to the forming corridor, and we all felt the world dissolve in a sea of dark. The others probably felt completely out of their element, but I was fine. I could see into the dark...sort of, and I was used to traveling this way. Still, there were jarring differences as we entered the abyss of blackness. The dark seemed thicker, more mercurial, and I could feel Rana's corridor beginning to shift slightly.

We should have been traveling out, toward a thinner spot in the darkness but we weren't, we were being drawn inexorably deeper, like we were in a whirlpool. I frowned but couldn't interfere, if I used my power in the dark here, HE would feel it for sure. I was pretty sure my friends wouldn't survive me getting his attention when we here in his domain. All I could do was let Rana take the reins. She knew where we were going, Gotham was her home as well as mine, and she should be able to find her way back easily enough.

We finally emerged from the dark, and even with the coats, the others began gasping, falling against the walls of the buildings of the alley we were in. That was the first clue something was wrong. There were parts of Gotham that were old and run down, but not THIS run down. The walls to the sides of us were moldy and crumbling. I walked down the alley, leaving the others as I stepped out onto the street and looked around, noting the ankle deep wetness blanketing the street with a sinking feeling.

If the dark energy in the air (denser than Gotham should ever have been curse or not) wasn't a giveaway, one look at the drowned skyline made me blood run cold. "Ok." I said without turning around. "Rana, is there anything you want to tell me? Because I don't remember Gotham being a destroyed hellscape when we left. Or at least, not one that is mostly UNDER WATER." I knew we were in Gotham from the buildings, but I was pretty sure this wasn't the RIGHT Gotham. We'd officially entered the dark multiverse, and I wasn't sure how the hell to get us out.

IT BEGINS! The final arc is underway folks, and it's off with a bang. In case anyone was wondering the realm of darkness and the dark multiverse are the same thing in this story, so expect to see fun KH bad guys and concepts mixed in with crazy Bat god murder worlds. I have so many big plans here! As usual pat-reon has the advance chapters at that site /malcolmtent and they just got to 300! Hope you all enjoy and let me know what you think. Also this is being posted on December 10th where I'm at, but since it's saturday I'm posting early so I can take the day off.