Silver Linings

Chapter 22: "It Happened Again!"

A/N: Slowly, slowly, this fanfic trudges toward completion. Ironically, the characters have started moving faster.

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Hollow Bastion: Borough...

Lambda stepped out of the Dark Corridor and tugged against Riku's wrist, surprised at the force she had to exert to pull him out of the Darkness. He finally came free with a sudden jerk, slamming headfirst into the wall dividing the Borough from the Market.

"Oof! Sorry, Riku! Is it always that hard to pull people out of a Dark Corridor?"

Riku staggered to his feet with one hand on his head. "Ow. No, not for me, at least when there's only one other person. Maybe it has to do with your connection to the Darkness?"

Lambda pondered that. "Maybe. My Darkness seems to have gotten a lot weaker than yours. I'll definitely let you take the lead through Dark Corridors from now on."

Riku straightened up and started walking toward Merlin's house. "My forehead agrees. C'mon, let's check on Namine. Judging by how fast Sora's been going, he's probably halfway done with whatever he's doing in Beast's Castle by now."

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Meanwhile, in Beast's Castle: Master Bedroom...

"Well, I do know one thing. This castle belongs to ME! Xaldin will never be welcome here!"

Sora, Donald, and Goofy cheered for the Beast as he brushed past them to take back his precious rose and reclaim his last chance at happiness. Xaldin was going down!

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Back with Riku...

Lambda fell into step beside Riku. "You're probably right."

Riku raised a gloved fist to knock on Merlin's door, but it opened before he could try. "Come in, come in! You simply must see the improvements I've made to Namine's Panel Grid!" Merlin ushered the couple inside so quickly that there might have been a teleport involved.

Namine waved to them from a chair in front of Merlin's small tea table. "Hello, Riku and Lambda. I've been okay here. No one attacked this place."

Merlin scoffed pridefully. "Only a fool would dare intrude in the home of a mighty wizard! ...Especially after I installed more traps. The Heartless have made a fool of me for the last time!"

"What did the Heartless do?" Riku wondered.

Merlin sputtered, "N-nothing important, the book wasn't even mine! What Heartless? You must be hearing things."

Lambda grabbed Riku's hand to stop him from prodding further. "I think we should stop asking, dear. What if he turns your beard orange?"

Lambda was half-joking, but Merlin glared in challenge. "Don't think I won't. You're not safe from my patented 'Tigerbeard' spell just because you don't have a beard right now!"

Riku wisely decided to change topics. "I'll pass, thanks. Is it okay to bring Namine with us again?"

Merlin's mood instantly brightened. Did he suddenly forget the last five minutes, or...? "Certainly, but first you should familiarize yourselves with her new Panel Grid. It was a simple matter to allow two panel areas to overlap on each square, enabling nearly endless possible Panel arrangements!"

Namine nodded enthusiastically. "He created a lot of new Panels, too. I've never even heard of a Spell Panel for Magnet before!" Namine spread out a pile of Panels with various symbols - more Panels than even the enhanced Panel Grid could possibly fit. "He gave me extra copies, so I can swap spent Spell Panels with fresh ones. I won't have to worry about running out of casts anymore."

Lambda nodded appreciatively. "You probably couldn't swap them in the middle of a fight, though."

Riku wasn't as immersed in the technical details as the other three people in the room. He wandered over to Cid's computer. "Does this house even have electrical outlets? How does this thing get power?"

Merlin grumbled, "That insufferable mongrel, Cid Highwind, ran cables through my wall, and then he had the nerve to lock that eyesore of a terminal with a password!"

Lambda glanced up at it and scanned the physical components. "No, it's using a camera to check for faces. Interfacing..." She spread her hands, creating a holographic keyboard to further analyze the terminal, mostly on a whim. "Relevant code found. 'Block user if the following traits match: floppy blue hat, stick-thin limbs, beard more than 0.5 times the user's total height; OR block voiceprint matching: 'I'll show you who's old!'"

Lambda did a perfect impression of Merlin's voice by playing the sound file. "It looks like Cid doesn't like you, either. Oh, and the password prompt is actually a chance to check the pressure sensors under the keys, so anyone who bangs on the keys gets locked out, not just Merlin. I had no idea Cid was so underhandedly vindictive."

Merlin started fuming, as in magic smoke started visibly pouring from his nostrils. "That's it! When I see him again, I'll..."

Riku hurriedly interrupted, "Sorry, can't stay! We gotta take Namine and catch up with Sora!"

He grabbed Namine and Lambda's wrists in one hand, waited just long enough for Namine to gather up her Panels, and opened a Dark Corridor. Namine's attempt to thank Merlin for the panel grid was cut short, right before the wizard's rage literally exploded behind them.

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Land of Dragons: Mountain Village (Destroyed)...

Riku yanked the two blondes out of the Dark Corridor and caught them in the crooks of his elbows. "Huff, huff... Are you both okay? That could have gotten ugly."

Lambda reported, "All systems functional. I'll try to keep my technological curiosity to myself next time. Merlin wasn't kidding about his power...even I could feel it, and I wasn't built to work with magic. Maybe I can use the magic of this timeline..." Lambda trailed off and started fantasizing about roasting Xigbar with Fire spells.

Namine took a second to catch her breath, then added, "Grabbing me all of a sudden made my new heart skip a beat, but I managed to hold onto all the Panels. Are we in the right place?" Namine gestured around the party at the devastated village and fresh snowfall, then started shoving Panels into a manila Folder of Holding (which Merlin had added inside her sketchbook's front cover).

Riku looked around for a second before facepalming. "I must have overshot in the rush to get out of there. But if the pattern holds, Sora will end up here next." For Namine's benefit, Riku recapped the current situation. "Sora totally ignored the clues we gave him and set off toward Beast's Castle. I don't think I can make it much more clear than a photograph of the place he needs to go. Namine, do you have any ideas on what we should do next?"

Namine did have one. "Can we get out of this cold weather, please? I don't have a heavy Black Coat like you two do." She suddenly shivered as a clumped snowflake landed on her neck. When Riku didn't immediately move to rectify the situation, she yelled, "Fire!" The spell launched a red ball of flame that struck a timber on a nearby ruined house. Unfortunately, this village was already burnt out. "Brr... I'd love to stay with you, but I think I should head back to Merlin's for now. Hopefully he's distracted himself from his feud by now. Good luck catching Sora!" With an apologetic curtsy, Namine opened a Dark Corridor and left.

Lambda stared at the empty space where their third party member had been. "I'm definitely keeping my curiosity to myself from now on." If she hadn't dug into Cid's anti-Merlin security, Riku wouldn't have had to rush them out of there too quickly to plan ahead.

Riku sighed heavily. "Well, I guess it's just the two of us again. Our team got split up after just one run of bad decisions - we both screwed up on the way here, and Namine couldn't follow us anymore. How do Sora, Donald, and Goofy manage to stay together when they argue all the time?"

Lambda guessed, "Maybe it's just a matter of Sora being Sora? It's not logic, but it works. Speaking of which...scanning... Sora located. Currently in combat with an undocumented member of Organization XIII."

Riku smirked under his hood. "Scratch one more member of Organization XIII, then. DiZ was right about one part of his plan - Sora's strong enough to destroy all of them."

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Meanwhile, at Beast's Castle: Bridge...

"Xaldin! Get out of my castle, NOW!"

Xaldin landed easily after jumping away from the Beast's claws. "Of course, but I'd rather travel light. What shall I leave behind...? Belle? Or the rose?"

The Beast pondered this cruel decision for only a moment before making his choice. "Belle!"

Then, a few things happened almost instantly.

First, Belle broke out of Xaldin's grip while he was distracted with taunting the Beast.

Next, she elbowed him right in the crotch. There were advantages to being way shorter than her captor.

Third, Xaldin clutched his abused groin with both hands, only to realize that Belle had taken the rose as well - glass case and all.

Finally, a short flash of light came from the direction of Sora, who was standing a short distance away from the action for now. It almost seemed like a camera...

By the time Xaldin got his composure back, Belle had managed to get behind the Beast. There could be no safer place in that world, but just in case, she kept running until she made it off the bridge with the enchanted rose in tow. Goofy and Donald cheered for Belle, but Sora was distracted.

Sora craned his neck around; Jiminy Cricket was bouncing up and down on his shoulder, giggling like a madman. "I got it! I got it! I took the funniest picture my Album's ever had!"

Goofy slowly interpreted, "You mean you got a photo of..."

Jiminy finished, "Xaldin getting beaten by Belle! That was too funny!"

Xaldin was not amused. "'Beaten,' you say...? 'Funny'? Where's the fun in this?!" With an angry gesture, he generated six tornadoes around himself that each dispersed to reveal a blue spear. The aptly-titled Whirlwind Lancer grasped one spear in his left hand and two in his right, leaving the other three to float behind him on wind currents. "Fine then; I'll have 'fun' with you! Wind, guard me!"

Xaldin surrounded himself with a swirl of wind, forming a shield that Sora recognized as a powerful Aero spell, and the battle began!

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Back with Riku's party, or what's left of it...

Lambda agreed with Riku's confidence in Sora. "Projected duration of battle: three minutes, assuming local time frame. This detour could be a good thing; the more Organization members Sora beats while we're off track, the fewer survivors we'll have to fight at the end."

Riku nodded firmly, then changed the subject. "Something else is bugging me, though. We almost had a pattern while we were jumping around the worlds without following Sora; we ran into a Time Break on almost every world. From what we've heard from visitors and Kokonoe, the Azure Timeline was about to face another apocalypse in addition to the threat of a Time Break expanding too far. But we haven't seen a Time Break since we ran into Taokaka; did Kokonoe's allies win? If their timeline is destroyed, would there even be Time Breaks?"

"You're right; contact with the Azure Timeline has been weirdly scarce. I suppose I can try to call Kokonoe. Should I?" Lambda powered up her internal radio.

To his credit, Riku tried to think this through. "What are the chances we'll catch her at a bad moment?"

"None. There's a neat device out there called an answering machine that plays a pre-recorded message in case the person on the other end can't..."

Riku interrupted Lambda's explanation. "Yes, I know what an answering machine is. The mainland of Destiny Islands wasn't just a village of plywood huts; we had telephone service and basic computers. If you're sure, then go ahead and call."

Lambda nodded. "Calling...routing to external speaker... Hello, Kokonoe? It's me, Lambda. The Time Breaks have been quiet lately; did something happen over there?"

"Okay, how did you get this number? Moreover, are you telling me you're the 11th Boundary Interface subject? Impossible. I haven't been able to excavate its remains, much less restore its functions."

"Wait, you don't remember me? Or Riku? Could there have been a Phenomena Intervention?"

Kokonoe groaned over the speaker. "Ugh, I've got a headache...which means there may have actually been an intervention. But if it could affect even my data... Okay, assuming you are who you say you are, what date did you first contact me?"

"I'm not sure how to clock that between timelines...wait, I remember! Hold for just one second..." Lambda dug into the pocket of her Black Coat and retrieved the first gift she'd gotten from Merlin. "Okay, World Clock, work your magic... It was on January 3rd, 2200 AD."

Kokonoe squawked in disbelief. "What? That's after the time loop ends!"

Lambda's face went pale as some of the puzzle pieces fit together. "Oh...oh, I get it. Everything's been reset to what it was like before the loop was broken. Is it just another Intervention, or did something even bigger happen...?"

Kokonoe went into deep doing-science mode on the problem. "Come to think of it, I've had a vague feeling of...wrongness for a while now. The sensation was too vague to even put in my documents, but if this isn't a time loop, if it's a parallel world, then I'll need to rework a lot of assumptions... Starting with how I apparently ended up handing my radio frequency to a rogue Murakumo Unit."

Lambda winced. "It's a long story. I can't really explain everything, but...aw, shoot, I ended up forming a Time Break! Look around your lab; do you see a distortion?"

"Yeah, I see it! what the hell is this!?"

"That's a Time Break - an unstable rip in whatever barrier separates your universe from the one I accidentally fell into." The full implications of this situation crashed down on Lambda. If this version of Kokonoe didn't know about the Time Breaks, then the problem might have resolved itself when the world transferred, or looped, or whatever happened. The Time Breaks were gone.

Or at least, they used to be gone, until... "Did I...oh no, I did! I just restarted that mess! This is really bad..."

Lambda quickly outlined what she knew of how the previous timeline's Kokonoe had designed a Time Breaker device. "You probably have some time before the Time Break expands enough to become a serious problem, but if our worlds collide..."

Kokonoe replied, "...Yeah, I get the picture. I'm sure I can redesign a Time Breaker - they don't call me a genius for nothing, after all. I think I...actually remember how I did it before, but I'll need to run tests...give me two hours for that and to sort out what happened to the timeline. Wait, did you say Relius Clover?! I...I killed that sonuvabitch!"

"He didn't stay dead, then. Watch out for him; he's working with Terumi. Maybe knowing that will give you a head-start in dealing with them. But they're just a problem for your end - two universes depend on your ability to handle the Time Breaks."

"I get it, I get it! We'll talk more later; right now, I've suddenly got a lot more science to do. Kokonoe out."

The transmission ended.

Lambda broke down in tears. This was what, the third time she'd been at least indirectly responsible for potentially destroying the multiverse? "Why does this happen every time? Every time we try to fix this, it gets worse! I just made a radio call, and... Is it all my fault, is that it?"

Riku hugged Lambda tightly, doing all he could to comfort her. "Don't say things like that. We'll find something that works eventually. Does Phenomena Intervention work on it?"

"Hmm...I'll try." Lambda engaged the Time Break in a short staring contest, and it suddenly vanished, leaving behind only a momentary ripple in the air. "Hey, it does work! So if I accidentally open a Time Break by trying to contact someone on the other side or with Observation, I can close it with just my own Intervention... But new ones can definitely still be opened, and I already told someone in the Azure Timeline of the possibility, so we'd better be on the lookout."

Riku nodded. "Yeah, and we know Kokonoe's going to call us soon, which will probably cause another Time Break. But, you know...I can't make myself see these rifts as just being a bad thing. After all, if it hadn't been for the first Time Break... I never would have met you."

Lambda stared at Riku. Where did he find these romantic lines? Well, Lambda had to admit they worked. The best response she could come up with was, "Point: Riku!"

Riku nodded sagely, as though the order of the universe had been confirmed. "I must be getting better at this; I worded it that way on purpose this time. Remember back in Castle Oblivion? Back then, you were the one trying to boost my confidence all the time. Well, now you can say it worked. You can probably give yourself a point for it, too; I think you're falling behind."

Lambda nodded and updated the score. "Okay, the current total is 9 to 7, still in your favor...hey, remind me what we're standing in the snow for again?"

Riku blinked. "Wow, in all the weirdness with the new Time Breaks, I almost forgot we were out in the snow. Is Sora finished with Xaldin yet?"

"Scanning for Xaldin...affirmative. Target terminated. Sora is on the move. He's probably going to show up really soon; he's almost through the Gummi Route that leads here."

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With Sora, in Stardust Sweep...

"Hah! Take that, you dumb Heartless!" Donald crowed as he unloaded bombs and bullets on a Hunter that tried to block the path of the newly-revamped Gummi Ship. Chip and Dale had really gone all out on the firepower of the Falcon, and even put together a pair of Teeny Ships for Goofy, which the dog clearly enjoyed.

Goofy ordered the Teeny Ships to hover in front of the main ship's nose, aiming all of their bullets directly ahead. He had worked out several formations and movement patterns to get the most out of the little drones for large groups or concentrated firepower; Goofy had only been able to watch the radar for too long for his liking, and he wanted to be as useful as possible. Between the two Disney Castle officials, no Heartless or Nobody impeded the ship for very long.

The enemy Hunter finally took too much damage and was wracked by chains of explosions, which left a clear path for the Falcon to clear the Gummi Route.

Sora let out a sigh of relief as they passed back through the Keyhole-shaped portal. He would rather have gone right back to Twilight Town to follow the clues they'd received (could they have been from Riku?), but the Gummi Routes he had used before had all closed themselves, including the one to Twilight Town, even though he hadn't opened that route himself. Sora even had to do all of the combat zones again, and there were a lot more enemies throughout each zone than ever before.

Maybe the worlds themselves were scared of the Heartless' sudden population boom - there were a lot more of them running around than before, and not just in Hollow Bastion. Well, Sora was still making progress and protecting other worlds - as much as he'd rather find Kairi, he had to handle the problems right in front of him first. To himself, he vowed, "Hold on, Kairi. I'll keep searching for as long as it takes until I find a way to reach you." He pressed the button to teleport himself and his party to the surface of The Land of Dragons.

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Back with Riku...

A blue flash came from downhill, signaling that Sora's party had arrived. Riku made sure his hood was all the way over his head and strode through the wrecked town toward the flash, trying to maintain his confidence. It was time to stop running...right? Lambda silently followed behind Riku.

There they were; Sora, Donald, and Goofy, though they were facing away from the village. Riku loudly crunched the snow under his boots to get their attention.

Sora's party didn't have favorable reactions.

Sora summoned his Keyblade. "Who are you two?"

Goofy guessed (incorrectly, for once), "Organization XIII?"

Donald yelped, "Two at once?"

All three readied their weapons.

Riku's confidence shattered instantly upon seeing Sora's unusually intense expression of closed-off anger directed squarely at him. Without giving the matter any further thought, Riku turned and ran. He didn't even have the presence of mind to use the Darkness for extra speed.

Lambda raised a hand after Riku, hoping to stop him, but he was over the hill and out of sight before she could even decide whether to blow their cover by speaking. She turned back to Sora and bowed her head apologetically for a moment before giving chase.

Sora only hesitated for a moment. "C'mon, guys!" Gesturing for Donald and Goofy to follow, he chased after the strangers.

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The Land of Dragons: Summit...

Riku berated himself all the way to the summit, but kept running...until he ran face-first into a Rapid Thruster. He caught his tongue before he could cry out; Sora could be right behind him.

"Hey, quit sneaking around!" Speak of the hero... It was time to face the Keyblade again. But now, there really was no running. The Heartless set up a Dark Barrier to trap the two of them in battle. No, wait, the three of them; Lambda had been right on Riku's heels.

Riku slowly turned around, not quite ready to try and explain, but saw a Rapid Thruster heading for Sora, who was too distracted to notice. On instinct, Riku flash-stepped into the Heartless' path and sliced it in two with Soul Eater.

Sora gawked at the demonic sword. Only two people had ever used a weapon like that around Sora: Riku, and Ansem...er, Xehanort's Heartless. But the Heartless was dead, so this was -

Another Rapid Thruster interrupted Sora's train of thought. The air was thick with the little yellow pests by now. Since it seemed this Black Coat guy, whoever he was, wanted to deal with the Heartless instead of letting them attack Sora, the Keyblade wielder decided to work on that problem first.

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Defeat all of the Heartless!

Sora jumped into the air, then double-jumped - a skill he'd learned from using Master Form - and used the extra height to attack the Heartless with air combos.

Riku launched a salvo of Dark Firagas in the other direction, destroying a sizable clump of the little annoyances, then summoned a massive rain of Soul Eaters with Dark Barrage. The more of them Riku destroyed instead of Sora, the slower Organization XIII's goal could be accomplished.

Lambda decided there wasn't any point in hiding her face or voice, since Sora didn't know her identity. "Summoning Lux Sanctus. IDEA Engine linked! Murakumo, activate!" Now armed and armored, Lambda summoned green swords to fly every which way. It wasn't often that she had such a target-rich environment.

One of her swords nicked Sora as it passed by, but Sora didn't quite see what hit him; he was too busy slaying a whole gaggle of Rapid Thrusters with an aerial spin attack. These newcomers had taken out way more Heartless than him; Sora pushed himself to move faster.

At last, the Heartless started to thin out. The barrier shined and disappeared, which was Riku's cue to flee the area. Given that Sora already mistrusted him, he'd need to find a better time to approach. Lambda saw him go, and dashed away while Sora was distracted with finishing off the last twenty or so Rapid Thrusters.

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A hidden snowdrift...

Riku hadn't looked where he was going, and he ended up on the other side of the mountain from the village; he'd ended up on the very border of this world. So what was Xigbar doing here?

"Come to crash the party, did ya? Well, you're too late!" Xigbar pointed at a massive dragon that was under attack by a group of Heartless Invisibles. It had been some time since Riku had seen one of these super-powerful Heartless. The dragon was pinned to the ground by crystals from Xigbar's arrowguns, which had stuck its feet to the floor.

It was, of course, a Chinese lung dragon, with a serpentine body covered in crimson scales and a golden mane running down its back. It also had a mustache of sorts, but the Invisibles attacking it had already chopped the whiskers off one side of its face.

With thrashing, roaring, and biting, the nameless dragon reduced the group of five Invisibles down to one, even though it was too exhausted to breathe fire and pinned to the ground to prevent flight. It wasn't quite strong enough to beat them all, though. The last Invisible plunged its sword into the dragon, and though the dragon's death throes managed to slam the Invisible and destroy it, the damage was done. A sharp burst of Light emanated from the dragon's wound, and its heart started to float away.

"Bulls-eye!" Xigbar teleported into the heart's path and shot it with a black arrowgun crystal, blasting the heart back into the dragon. This wasn't an act of kindness by any measure, though. Now the dragon itself would become a powerful new Heartless type. A cloud of Darkness and lightning formed around the dragon, obscuring it from view. Xigbar turned back toward Riku and Lambda to gloat. "Hey, punks, get a load of this cool new Heartless I just cooked up!"

"No, you get a load of this! Dark Impulse!" Lambda caught on quickly and set a Gravity Seed under Xigbar, and Riku followed with his trusty shockwave slam move. Xigbar's control over space prevailed, though, and he teleported away from the area.

"Oopsy-daisy! Too slow, punks! Sorry, gotta bounce. World orders to disrupt, y'know? We'll chat later, but you can have fun with the Storm Rider in the meantime!" Xigbar's voice fell silent.

Right on cue, the storm clouds around the corrupted dragon burst, revealing an entirely different creature. It had yellow wings covered in looping designs that fanned out to the sides of a fat, blue body. Four yellow horns on its head and two black ones at the bases of its wings each sparked with lightning. It had a ragged white beard with the Heartless' emblem branded on it right below its chin. Instead of four spindly legs, the Storm Rider had six weird appendages that looked like cymbals, meaning the Heartless had to remain airborne to move. When the cymbals crashed together, a cluster of bombs was summoned and fell to the ground, covering the Heartless dragon's escape. It flew straight toward the Imperial City.

Riku shook a fist at the departing dragon. "Argh! I can't stand that Xigbar!"

Lambda noted, "There's no way Sora didn't see that. He'll take care of the dragon, so we should focus on minimizing casualties."

"Good point, Lambda. We'll beat it to the city and warn whoever's in charge. Hold on tight." Riku grabbed Lambda's arm.

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The Land of Dragons: Palace Gates...

"Affirmative - WHOA!" Lambda's voice was ripped from her lungs as she suddenly found herself in front of the Imperial Palace. Rather than use a Dark Corridor, Riku had opted to simply fly to his destination with Darkness-enhanced speed, reaching his destination just shy of instantaneously. Lambda's arm felt sore from being yanked so hard, but any discomfort was already clearing up.

Riku chuckled sheepishly. "Sorry, dear. I've noticed we lose some random amount of time every time we go through a Dark Corridor, so I decided to handle travel on a single world with my own speed to make sure we aren't too late."

Lambda took a second to catch her breath, then nodded. "That's a smart decision, actually. I'll probably get used to it. Murakumo, deactivate." Her armor vanished, and she re-summoned her Black Coat in its place...and then bent over to yank off her boots. "Every time I summon my Black Coat, the boots come back. It doesn't take long to get rid of them, but it's a pain."

Riku chuckled at Lambda's antics, then turned toward the great doors to the palace. A large, bald man in blue armor stood in front of the gates, acting as the lone guard.

In the recently-achieved peacetime, Chien-Po was more than sufficient to guard the main entrance to the palace all by himself. He addressed the strangers, "You there, who are you? How did you simply appear in front of me?"

Riku used Ansem's voice. "Who we are isn't important, but we bring a warning. The palace is in danger."

"If what you say is true, then you had better speak to the Emperor or the General. I will allow you inside, but I will follow and watch. Show no disrespect in the Emperor's presence." Chien-Po lightly pulled on the handles of the gates, and the twenty-foot-high, two-foot-thick blocks of solid wood moved out of the way. No wonder this guy was the only one on guard!

"You heard him. Be on your best behavior, dear." Lambda wagged a finger playfully. These people weren't a concern; the threat was still on its way.

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Meanwhile, on the Mountain Trail...

The Storm Rider was making solid progress toward the largest group of tasty hearts in this world, but the other Heartless didn't recognize it, and they tried to attack the vastly superior boss Heartless in hopes of taking its powerful captive heart and Darkness. These small fry weren't having much luck at dragon-slaying, of course. Most of them could be destroyed and harvested without even slowing the dragon down, but the Bolt Towers were immune to its lightning and flew too high to be hit by bombs, so the Storm Rider was sometimes forced to change course to destroy them with ramming attacks. Overall, the journey was taking longer than it should, giving both groups of heroes enough time to beat the dragon to its destination.

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In the Throne Room...

"...And that's what we saw. Make sure everyone stays indoors when the dragon arrives."

The Emperor's head adviser nasally proclaimed, "We should ready our troops to combat this threat, Your Majesty!" Something about him seemed slimy to Riku, but it was unimportant.

Riku shook his head. "Normally, I would agree that fighting back would be your best chance. But not only is that thing too strong for any of you, there are three...wise guys...who just arrived and will definitely take care of it. Your troops would be better off maintaining order and keeping civilians out of the fight, so they won't be turned into more Heartless."

"To whom do you refer by 'wise guys'?" The Emperor asked.

"You've met them, I'm sure. Don't worry, this threat has nothing on Sora and his team."

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At the Checkpoint...

Sora launched into another combination attack with Mulan. His party had run into her during his attempt to chase the man in the Black Coat (and also chase the woman who had removed hers and summoned all those swords), only to learn that Mulan had been in the mountains tracking a man with a similar description. Their attempt to compare stories had been cut short by the roar of a massive dragon Heartless, and they had been rushing to the Imperial City to warn everyone of its imminent arrival ever since.

In the meantime, Sora was getting practice with whatever power let him fly while attacking alongside his friends. Donald was almost jealous; he wanted to come up with a way to fly alongside Sora, but all the duck could come up with was a way to link Sora's mana to his and create LOTS of little rockets that flew around and blew up on enemies. The "Duck Flare" spell was certainly useful, but sitting on Sora's shoulders to draw on his mana just wasn't as cool as flying...

At last, all the Heartless in their way were defeated. Luckily, the dragon was somehow still behind them, looping around in a slow and inefficient flight path. Each loop still brought it closer to the city on average, but Sora was comfortably ahead of the monster by now, even with some Assault Riders getting in the way.

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Back in the Throne Room...

General Shang angrily spoke up, "Do you mean to imply that the Chinese army is not strong enough to defend our people?" He drew his sword.

Riku sighed and summoned Soul Eater. "Fine, if you need proof...if you can land a hit on me before I defeat you, then you're definitely good enough to take on the Storm Rider. Come at me!"

Shang charged straight at the black-cloaked stranger. The officer's guard was in the right place, his balance was perfect, and his strength and speed were both impressive, but his enemy was in a whole other class of superhuman power. The enemy flickered and vanished from Shang's path, and the General was sent sprawling by a blunt hit to his back.

Shang considered getting up and trying again, but the Emperor admonished him. "Stand down, General. This stranger has proven his point."

Riku dismissed Soul Eater in a cloud of Darkness and turned to face the Emperor. "See? I'm not saying your army isn't strong or effective, but their job is to protect this world from its own problems. The Heartless came from other worlds, just like my friends, my girlfriend here, and myself. They're a bigger threat than any one world can handle. Luckily, Sora's here, and it's his job to fight the Heartless and other monsters from the Darkness across multiple worlds. As for you and your army, you should do what you can, but don't overextend yourself by trying to do Sora's job."

Lambda spoke up. "Scanning... He's actually at the gates. We should go, dear."

"Right. We're going now. You should take cover...and maybe prepare a celebration for when it's over. I have total confidence in those wise guys - they'll win." Riku formed a Dark Corridor back to Hollow Bastion, took Lambda's hand, and walked through.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

A/N: Darn it, I took a month to update again!

The events of BlazBlue: Chronophantasma are officially over. From here on, we'll follow a non-canon substitute for BlazBlue: Centralfiction. My assumptions are based on what little info has been revealed in English while we wait for the game to be localized, but most of it is translated like the memetastically incomprehensible Zero Wing cutscene:

How are you gentlemen? All your Azure are belong to us. You are on your way to the Doomsday.

Most of the news announcements looked like that. So I'm making up the facts as I go.

Namine left the party mostly to show that Sora's ability to keep a team together is unique. Not just anyone can hang around Donald Duck for such a long time! Also, Namine really isn't dressed for adventure. She'll still be around, just not in Riku's traveling party.