Omni POV:
Noel had followed the two soldiers he and Serah had eavesdropped on earlier in the day. He remained hidden within the crowds, behind various objects without trying to act suspicious to civilian perspectives and blended in well with dark corners of the city as his clothes were equally dark since the sun had fallen an hour or so ago. The soldiers had confronted a woman in front of the time gate with rose colored hair and a white sleeveless top, feeling that it may have been Lightning. Smiling victoriously Noel whispered with his eyes still watching the scene.
"Serah, I think that's your sister. If it is we have to do something just in case they take her in for questioning. Okay?" The Hunter waited for an answer but silence replied back to him. So he tried again.
"Serah, did you hear me? I said that woman could be Lightning. Amazing how she could leave Valhalla so casualy though." Noel said aloud, his expression deep in thought. He waited a few minutes for Serah to respond as he thought more on the supposed to be older Farron's actions. Again no response. Slight irritation of being ignored Noel turned his head to the direction of where Serah was supposed to be standing to find a young girl a few inches shorter than his friend. She was no older than twelve with the same shade of pink color hair and big doe blue eyes, the same as blue as Serah and Lightning, dressed in a strange fashion of black, look up at Noel smugly and asked,
"Did you lose your girlfriend or something, Mister?" Heat rose into the Hunter's face from the asked question then alarm and adrenaline flowed throughout his system as he realized his companion was missing. He just realized Serah was missing and suddenly felt like a lunatic as he was talking to himself this whole time than to his companion. Searching and twisting his body in every possible direction as if it could help spot the pinknette Noel cried out suddenly in panic,
"Oh my God! Serah was right! Karma is really a BITCH!?" From the crowds someone shouted to Noel in a strict tone,
"Watch your language young man!" With a sheepish expression on his face and a light blush on his cheeks Noel scratched his head and apologized but suddenly took off without a second thought to find Serah. The young child grinned as she watched until the Hunter vanished from sight, walked behind a pillar and a luminous veil enveloped her body and she vanished.
Elsewhere:
Academia was dark, darker than any city once the sun sets, with secrets and deceit lurking in every corner waiting to be uncovered or catch its next ignorant victim. And Serah Farron had been added to the pile by the enemies and important allies of the Interloper, unknowing to her as she lay out cold in a far away abandoned alleyway within the city. A figure had a lollipop in her mouth, the candy had long since been devoured, used fire to light the end of the stick as a fake cigarette to add a menacing glow to her already austere appearance. The figure looked at the girl she took and waited for her 'Patron' to show up and give her direction of what to do now. Inhaling the stick like an actual smoke thin white wisps of smoke was exhaled then the stick was discarded with a spit and crushed under a thick pair of shoes.
"I swear, why was I commanded to kidnap this girl? She isn't worth fighting, let alone worth taking in the first place. Lumina better hurry up or I swear she'll get whats coming to her, the little shit..." The figure said aloud to herself as she tried to get her facts straight which only led her to grow frustrated and punch the wall of the a deserted and dilapidated warehouse causing the building to shake and groan of the impact. Calming herself down the person stood upright with her face cast down with her brow scrunched in annoyance.
"Then again, the Champion's sister is much more important than she and that idiot of an Interloper realizes. It isn't my place to question what Lumina has planned anyway. What she says goes no matter how much of a stupid plan she has up her sleeve."
'drip. Drip. Drip. Drip drip drip drip.'
"Hm?" The girl in black looked star ward and felt small droplets of rain begin to descend and turn into a torrent of raindrops the girl cursed loudly as she and her captive were soaked to the bone. Inside the warehouse was cold from the buildings age but it was better in there than to stay outside. Grabbing the pinknette over her shoulder the pair quickly rushed inside. Once inside the rain picked up and thunder alongside lightning flashed and roared outside.
"Great, a storm. Just what we needed..." The figure mumbled to herself as she felt the cold breeze bite into her skin, her clothes were very drenched as her captives so she Sacrificed her leather jacket and some other miscellaneous items that were flammable and used a strong first tier fire spell. The flames were sparked to life and created warm embers to deflect the cold and harsh breeze. Serah shivered and started stirring but didn't wake, the figure pushed the girl closer to the fire until she no longer shivered and calmed down.
"What a fricken drag..." The figure complained once more and listened to the rain drop in through several holes in the ceiling creating a puddle of where they fell. The sounds were truly relaxing but she just hated looking at her reflection in the cooling pool of water, it was the same as Her. The person she hated the most, the one whose shadow she will never be able to escape no matter how hard she tries. Soon the rain and wind were replaced by hushed sounds, whispering into the figures ear's reminding her, never leaving her in peace.
'Malice...' The wind spoke carefully, carrying the name with such a heavy feeling with each letter that it said.
'Malice...' The wind said again but darker, frightfully grim Kid brought her hands over her ears and tried to block it out, her eyes clenched shut to ignore the bad vibes. Her heart was clenched in pain and she felt something change but didn't care to look at what changed. However, the voice was persistent and increased in volume.
"Kid!" A hand shook the teen from her futile efforts to see standing below her was non other then Lumina.
"Your so fucking late, you know that, right?" Kid spoke with pure irritation at the appearance of the younger pinknette who gave the taller teen a cocky smirk.
"I had some business to attend to. Now it's just Noel all alone in the city. Mel is incarcerated since the woman she followed reported her as a Stalker, you kidnapped Serah and drugged her. Let's see how well these three deal with the threats waiting to pop out and wreck havoc into this city." Kid raised her eyebrows and asked curtly,
"This accomplishes what now? You want these guys to fail?" lumina shook her head and sat next to the fire near Serah, taking in her presence and looking at her companion again, still smirking.
"Of course not, we both know the original timeline and I know you, me and Mel weren't supposed to be here. Caius Ballad is supposed to be the real Antagonist but since something changed we just have to play along with this new improvised script. Otherwise, everything will collapse and the real havoc will be brought upon both Earth and Cocoon. Right now everything is being delayed thanks to our efforts, well your efforts to be exact." Kid stood in the shadows still and scoffed,
"Whatever, Lumina. So what are these threats waiting to be unleashed anyway?" Lumina's smirk was immediately dropped as she brought out a dry sketch pad, opened the first several pages and showed Kid who examined each drawing and her expression exchanged hate with fear, even in such childish form Kid knew better than to allow any of this to funnel through this current timeline.
"You can't be serious... Lumina, this is a death sentence to let this much destruction flow within one timeline! Do you want this much power to end the world prematurely!?"Lumina shook her head, however feels satisfied with her plan to stop the appending doom, then turned her attention away from her comrade as she sensed Serah was finally waking up from her drugged slumber.
"Where am I?" Still a little groggy and weak Serah saw two different figures but couldn't make out any details. Lumina slightly frowned and with quick reflexes used her dark energy to extinguish the flames leaving the now alert older pinknette in a room full of awakening nightmares and filled with fear.
Mel's POV:
My eyes still hurt but at least I can see more than when that woman sprayed mace in my eyes. The mirror of my cell showed my eyes were dark red my brown eyes looked darker and it seemed to "pop" out more than it should. I sighed and laid on my cot in the single broom closet sized cell of mine, I couldn't believe that lady that labeled me a stalker called the cops and had me thrown in jail, a place I thought I never would ever be put in. I was scared for my life... But on the upside I have my privacy and won't be bothered.
'Bzzzzt!' I sat straight up and two officers entered my room, guns in hand.
"Start walking, Stalker. You got a visitor." One said while the other laughed at my misfortune. I looked at the floor embarrassed and thought to myself,
'It was just a misunderstanding...' But complied to the officers command. They led me down several corridors and through a heavily locked door, it seemed like it was those booths in the visitors section. I didn't see anyone that would visit me but I was shoved down the row to the corner booth near the wall, I took my seat and saw pink hair again. I thought it was that crazy lady with the pepper spray and almost fell backwards, forgetting there was glass separating me from the outside world, looked at the person better to see it was only the bane of my current existence.
"What do you want, Lumina?" I asked monotonous. Lumina smirked at me and giggled like I told a funny joke.
"Not very happy to see me, huh?" I stared at her and cocked an eyebrow. Lumina didn't lose her annoying smile.
"I'm here to tell you something very important. And I really reeeeaaally need you to listen up." Something feels wrong. I may not have a strong sense of, what was the word, empathy but whatever this feeling is is raising a red flag now. Lumina hooks her finger like that signal for 'come hither dear' as I would have imagined from the Lionhead Fable series, she leaned in closer to the glass and her hand somehow fazed right though it. I tried to increase the distance between us but I wasn't quick enough. Lumina caught hold of my collar and pulled me into the glass, but instead of colliding into the solid my head went right through it. How the hell does she do this!? No, better question; what the hell is she up to!?
"Now that I got your full attention I need you to listen very carefully, okay?" With that she said more red flags started going off. Whoa whoa whoa! Back up girlie, your face is way too close for my comfort! I'm feeling very triggered right now!
"Don't worry, I'm not up to anything this time. I'm here to warn you, something terrible is going to happen if you don't bust out of jail soon!" Lumina spoke in a rushed tone, looking over her shoulder more times than anyone should. I was still ticked at her for MANY reasons, lets count the ways shall we,
"Why should I believe you!? You tricked me into thinking you were Lightning practically attacking me when I arrived to Valhalla, made me feel very uncomfortable back at the NORA house, manipulated my mind and controlled me into becoming a monster while, simultaneously, nearly made me kill Serah and Noel back at Lake Bresha, and nearly killed me when I came to you for help with controlling my powers! Need I go on, Child?!" It took me a long time to collect myself and regain control of my emotions, throughout that time Lumina did not say a word, her expression was serious and very grim unlike the many previous accounts from before. It was hard to trust this girl, it was like taking care of an animal; they will leave you alone if you feed them but do something they don't like they bite the hand that feeds them. It was much harder determining whether or not she was serious or not too despite appearances. Could I trust her? Or better yet should I trust her?
Lumina pushed me back into my chair and slammed the desk with both hands she got everyone in the stations attention. She looked me right in the eye and I suddenly felt smaller than she is compared to me.
"I know you don't believe me but I'm trying to help see things through the end, no matter how much I tend to trick you and your friends okay?! So just listen!" Slowly calming down and lowering her voice Lumina has my full attention. Sitting back in the chair Lumina leaned in closer to the glass and continued.
"Somethings are being drawn here, things that me and Kid have no power to prevent from coming into this timeline at the same time. The reason I separated you three was because fighting one at a time would be all for nothing as their presence alone could destroy everything. If you really want to keep your promise to Lightning, really want to protect your sister in your home world and to at least make it to the end of the world I need you three to really fight with everything you got, okay?"
Every word she said had some convincing weight to each of them, she wasn't lying. My feeling was telling me to believe her and I did. I nodded and looked to the handcuffs strapped around my wrists then back to the girl before me.
"Okay, I believe you." With those simple words that smirk reappeared and the air didn't feel so grim.
"Good. Oh, by the way, you can still use your powers to get your weapon back and escape easy. Well, I better go help Kid, screw you later!" With a flash she was gone. And once she was gone another hell appeared; the walls and earth began to shake violently the lights flickered rapidly on and off, everyone collapsed to the ground from the powerful shake it was hard to stand. I tried but failed.
"Grant me the power of Flight!" I shouted and my wings appeared, lightly gliding in midair I managed to get my bearings, use thunder to unlock the cuffs and head to the armory to retrieve my sword. No one could stop me and I knew I had to do something about this quake. The armory door was halfway close and guards were all over the ground, I entered while ignoring their threats and demands and managed to find my sword easily. Taking it back into my possession I blasted a hole into the ceiling and flew out that way. Once to the skies I saw the sky was darker than black and there was a strange symbol that I thought was the power of the God! Bhunivelza had a strange symbol when he summoned me and now it was over Academia.
"Whats going on here!?" I shouted and the symbol began to stream out energies of gold, three separate streams, one near the police station, one deep in the city and one someplace that I never explored in the game.
"AAAAAUGH!" The sounds of screams and cries of agony pulled me back to the current situation and I flew to the ground where bodies of civilians and guards alike were scattered and stained in a pool of blood. In the dust that covered the courtyard wind suddenly appeared and the dust was gone, in the center I saw a figure moving closer and closer. I drew my blade and pulled it in front in time to block a powerful attack from the figure, when I saw who attacked me I almost dropped everything.
"What the hell is going on here?!"
A/N: Okay so this chapter is shorter because the next chapters will be Noel, Serah and Mel's fights separately. One on one or whatever the paradoxes that piled through. So, yeah. Sorry the update is taking longer I am starting another school, *cough*cough*college*cough.* So with my schedule now I might update as much as I can. When the chapters update we will see who each of our heroes are going to fight, will they be victorious? Or will the power of chaos erase them for good? Find out on the next chapter of 'History ReWritten.' Ciao!