July 3rd 2016 Traverse Town, 10:00 PM EDT

My head was killing me when I woke up. Honestly I thought I'd left this particular habit behind me, but weirdly it's almost comforting to know I still have limits, if only so I know I can still surpass them. Still, it took even me a second to clear my head as I came to, and when I did, I realized my head was somewhere soft. I looked up to see the worried face of my girlfriend. I grinned at her widely. "Come here often?"

Realizing I didn't even know where 'here' was, I sat up and looked around, realizing a few important details. Once, I was on the couch back in the old house. Two, I was still in my armor, which wasn't a surprise. Three, Zee wasn't the only one here, Rana and Drea were sitting in nearby chairs, looking over anxiously. I waved to them. "Howdy. Looks like everyone made it out alright?"

I'd only blacked out after undoing the virus, so I hadn't been too worried to begin with. Vincent was a friend of the others, Sephiroth would probably be a little out of it, and with Rana there and him losing most of his power, I was sure she could handle it. The only wild card, no pun intended, was Luxord, but only because I was worried he might have some annoying emergency escape trick. He seemed like the type.

I was shocked to feel the impact of a small form as my daughter hurled herself across the room and wrapped her arms around me. "Daddy!" She wailed. "You're ok! I was so worried. Mom and mama swore it would be fine and that you used to do this all the time, but they both seemed really worried too so I couldn't trust it." She buried her face in my metal clad chest, squeezing so tight I suspected a normal person's spine would have become powder.

Right, my old habit of overdoing it and blacking out had mostly been before her time. I was pretty sure she hadn't seen my incident in the invasion, since it had only been a few minutes. I might have done it once or twice in front of her, but I'd become a lot stronger. It was reasonable she might get a bit worried. I patted the top of her head gently. "Hey." I murmured. "I'm fine. It's alright. Are you ok? Is everyone else?" Their auras weren't chaotic enough for me to assume anyone died, but I figured telling me might take her mind off things.

She nodded into my chest. "They're ok. Cloud and Tifa are gone. Once the virus wore off, we got distracted by Vincent turning back. Luxord did some weird magic overload thing and blew up most of his cards to short out the wards before vanishing, and Sephiroth took the opportunity to escape. They stopped to check on Vincent and then took off to try to catch up to him. They haven't come back yet, but Aerith says she doesn't think they'll be able to catch him. They've been chasing him a long time and he knows them too well."

I cursed. Fuck. I hoped we would've caught him. It was fine. He wasn't a huge threat, just an annoyance. Sephiroth wasn't even that, he wasn't likely to show up again with the Organization, I'd probably never run into him. That wasn't the biggest question though. "What about the Devastator? Did we manage to catch him?" Taking out one of Barbatos's annoying bat knock offs would definitely be a win, moreso than the cultists honestly based on what that particular fake had been capable of.

My relief at their tangible happiness couldn't be overstated. I absolutely didn't want to deal with that asshole escaping and trying to get vengeance. Even if I'd destroyed the virus on a conceptual level, no Batman could be underestimated, and he'd been under its influence for a while based on how advanced it was. There was no reason to think he couldn't have come up with some kind of knock off version, and that was if he couldn't somehow get another strain from wherever the fuck he got the first one. If it had changed enough from the original my purge might night have affected that.

"We got him." Confirmed Zee unnecessarily. My sorceress shot me a wide grin. "Once Aerith confirmed he was clean we handed him over to the Merlin! He came back after this all ended and was hoping to talk to you. He apologized for not being able to help out, but says we did a great job! Donald and I even spent some time discussing magic with him, and he gave me a book of exercises to work on!"

She was nearly delirious with joy, and it was hard for me not to laugh at her excitement. I finally let my armor retract, pulling away from my pouting daughter with a laugh. "Well, sounds like you all had a crazy time. How long was I out anyway?" I checked my phone, but I hadn't checked it before the fight so I wasn't sure exactly how long it had been anyway.

Drea chuckled warmly. "Four hours, more or less. It's why Morana was so worried. But yes, it was hectic. The others are waiting to see you, if you're willing. I know that more than just the three of us were worried. Tifa and Cloud expressed their regrets that they couldn't wait for you to wake up before they left." She raised an eyebrow at Rana. "Which SOMEONE should probably have mentioned. I suspect she was too busy moping her crush left."

Rana gave an offended scoff, but her blush would have given her away even if her aura hadn't. I just rolled my eyes and hopped to my feet. "It's fine. I'm feeling better and I'd love to see how everyone is doing. Also kind of curious what's up with that Vincent dude." I stood, watching in amusement as my girls hovered like I was going to fall, despite being a literal deity. Once they were sure I was alright they grudgingly let me leave.

As soon as I stepped into the hall I got hit with ANOTHER missile. This one with brown spiky hair. I froze as Sora swept me up in a bear hug. "Morgan! That was awesome! I'm so glad you're ok!" I was a little thrown off balance by the gesture, but it wasn't really a weird thing. Sora was basically an overgrown kid.

"Wow, you're a hugger." I said with a chuckle, patting his back as he set me down. "And yeah, I'm fine. Heard you did pretty well out there too." I reached up to mess up his hair, a gesture that proved functionally impossible to do given the wild spikes it was already in. "Thanks for looking out for my girls out there."

He shot me a big dopey grin. "Of course! What are friends for?" I laughed and clapped him on the shoulder, following him down the hallway. As we walked, he kept up a steady stream of chatter about everything and nothing, telling me what had happened, how he felt about what had happened, what he had for lunch after, and everything in between. I had to hold back a smile. Sora was more of a kid than Rana was, and it was impossible not to see him as an overly excitable little brother. He just had this kind of weird magnetism that made you want to like him.

When we arrived in the front room I got another hug from a teary eyed Aerith. "Thank you so much Morgan! We can't express how much it means that you helped save Vincent. He's an old, dear friend, and the thought of him stuck like that breaks my heart." She gestured to where a pale, tall man with long dark hair and lots of red clothing was sleeping peacefully on the couch. Based on the aura I was pretty sure they put a sound bubble of some kind around him so he wasn't disturbed.

I smiled at her as I pulled back, not actually entirely comfortable with all the one on one gratitude. In big groups like after the invasion it was cool, but being gushed at by a single person was kind of awkward, not that I'd be a big enough dick to say it. I decided to take a page from Sora's book. "Hey, don't mention it. What are friends for right? I'm just glad I could help. How is he doing?"

This question was aimed not just at Aerith, but at the tall bearded man in the unusually pointed hat sitting by the fireplace reading a book. Merlin gave me a grandfatherly smile as he looked up over his half moon glasses. "Quite well thanks to you, my boy. I must admit, I knew you would handle things, but in the timeline I viewed you weren't quite so thorough. An excellent job, young man."

It was a strange feeling, being kind of in awe of the guy and super pissed at him at the same time. "I appreciate that Merlin, but I'd have preferred you actually help us. I know you said there was some timey wimey shit going on, but this whole thing was way more dangerous than I expected. You couldn't have given us ANY clues? If we'd had your help Sephiroth might not have escaped. Or Luxord."

Realistically I knew that if Merlin said he had his reasons he probably did, but my head hurt and I was annoyed. This had been a net win for us, true, but we'd taken some losses too. With Merlin on side we could have swept this shit up within a few hours probably.

To my surprise, Merlin didn't bluster or make and grand proclamations, he just smiled sadly and sipped his tea until I was done ranting. Once I finished, he gave a slow nod. "This is true." He said without an ounce of hesitation. "I may have been able to prevent both of those things from happening. However, it is my burden to look not only at the current situation, but at that which is to come. A good chess player thinks ten moves ahead, a great chess player needs only consider one, but it is always the right move. I, sadly, for all my years, have never been able to achieve greatness in any field save magic."

I threw up my hands. "That's it? You just say 'oh, well it'll definitely pay off later, don't worry about it, and I'm supposed to believe it? Because no offense but living legend or not I don't know you." I DID know he wasn't lying to me, no one could manage that without my knowledge, not anymore, but not lying wasn't the same as telling the truth.

That got a sad chuckle from the old man. "But I know you, Morgan O'Malley. Or I will. I know you well enough to know you would agree with my decisions, should you have access to the information at my disposal. I realize it rings hollow, asking for your trust while seemingly extending none of my own, but I assure you it is a matter of the utmost necessity that things proceeded in the general fashion they did. Small variations are still withing acceptable parameters, but my direct involvement would have been far beyond that acceptable threshold."

Seeing he had no intention of changing his mind about telling us what was coming all I could do was sigh. He was right. I could trust him or not but in the end talking or not talking was up to him. Might as well roll the dice if my money was going in the pot anyway. "Fine. Well, what CAN you tell me? I got the impression you won't be here for long. You didn't stay behind to tell me good job right?"

The kind smile was back. "It is always important to let people know they are appreciated, dear boy. Remember that. But no, I stayed behind because while I cannot reveal the entirety of future events for fear of changing their course, I CAN give you a general direction to work in." He glanced off to one side into the fireplace, half moon glasses glittering in the light of the flames. "Tell me, Morgan. Have you ever heard of a place called Scala ad Caelum?"

July 3rd 2016 Traverse Town, 11:00 PM EDT

"Scala ad Caelum?" I said blankly. "Stairway to heaven? Only one I can think of is a fairly overrated song that everyone learns to play on guitar when they start out." I knew plenty of Latin from my time researching for Jim, but I'd never heard that phrase used in that language.

Merlin chuckled. "An amusing reply, and one I quite enjoy. You know, I was on earth during the nineteen eighties. I actually attended a Led Zeppelin concert in person. I have a house in Bermuda, but I like to pop by New York and Paris and London to take in the sights when I'm in world. Sadly, I'm afraid I'm not referring to the lyrical stylings of Robert Plant. I speak of something of much more...consequence."

I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose. "Merlin, I thought we weren't doing the cryptic doublespeak thing right now? Because this is not helping me understand anything." I walked over and sat down, gesturing the girls out because this seemed like it was going to take a while.

"Quite right." He said in embarrassment. "Apologies, dear boy. I'm afraid when one reaches my advanced age habits can be hard to break. Scala ad Caelum is not a song. It is a place. In point of fact, it is THE place. The original hub of all worlds in the multiverse. Scala ad Caelum was once a flourishing kingdom of powerful scientists and scholars that existed in a sliver of reality called the Monitor Sphere."

I furrowed my brow. "Is that in the Sphere of the Gods? Or is it somehow adjacent? I've never heard of it, but the way you said that makes it sound like more than just a world."

He gave me an acknowledging nod. "Indeed. It is adjacent to the Sphere of the Gods. Scala ad Caelum was created on the bones of the world forge. An even more ancient and powerful location that one played host to the World Forger himself. When he was consumed by his dragon, whose name you know but dare not speak, the remnants of the World Forge's technological and magical principles were used to found a grand kingdom. In time, this kingdom too fell, and its remnants were in turn conquered by Xehanort, the true leader of the Organization, at the behest of his master."

Raising an eyebrow, I made a hurry up gesture. "This is all fascinating stuff. I love a good history lesson for worlds I've never been to and had no intention of ever seeing, but I'm assuming you brought this up because it was important to me for some reason?"

Merlin just chuckled, sipping his tea again. "Impatience, my boy, is the doom of reason. But very well. Yes, I bring this to your attention because it is indeed relevant to your situation. I assume that Delirium told you of what you require to reforge the Dark Multiverse?"

"Yeah." I said in annoyance. "A shit ton of keyblades to make this X-blade thing. Then we use that to repair the Dark Multiverse, creating a new, functional multiverse of darkness of which I become the first Endless and Bar- and the B-guy is tossed out on his ass." I already knew all this. I'd collected MOST of the wielders already, and once I got them together I'd make a magic sword thing and then...do world creation...or something. Fuck. "I don't know what we're supposed to be doing with the X-blade."

The old wizard smiled like a proud grandfather. "You see, I knew you would get there. You see, when Delirium told you that you could repair the dark multiverse, she wasn't being exactly accurate. The word she should have used was rather 'reforge'. While it is true that your power is the flame that can reshape the Dark Multiverse, and the X-blade is the hammer to temper and purify those worlds, you're still missing one more important ingredient."

"An anvil." I said with a start. I'd worked on forging with Artemis a few times, and with my memory it wasn't a stretch to remember the requirements. This was an easy one. "The world forge will act as an anvil to allow me to hammer the imperfections from the Dark Multiverse, while my Deception ability will allow me to simply change those worlds instead of crushing them with what I can only assume is a normally devastating creation event."

Merlin gave a pleased nod. "Even so. But if it was simply that I could have left a note. It is important that you study the way Scala ad Caelum interacts with the multiverse. It is a linchpin, a keystone, a hub from which all worlds spring. To properly forge the Dark Multiverse into a healthy system of worlds, you need such a linchpin. A Dark Stairway. To use the world forge to rework the worlds is not enough. You must guide the energy to create a dark mirror to Scala ad Caelum itself. You must make a new world."

That was...heavy. Really heavy. Reforging the multiverse was one thing, I was just changing something that was already there, and I was using prepared tools with shit loads of power to do it. But to create a new world. To forge my own fucking universe. And not just any universe, a central universe that the entire Dark Multiverse would be connected to. I didn't even know how I would begin.

Except...that wasn't true. Sure, it was much more complicated than anything I'd done before, but I DID know how to begin. The void. The dark mirror on the other side of existence. I'd used the void to create Rana, even if I hadn't really meant to. Granted, I'd used the keyblade too, and hearts, but...I still had those other things. Not just any keyblade either. I'd be using THE keyblade. All things had a shape in the void, and creating that shape would be my first step to actualizing a world. I had a whole book on how to do something just like this, but I hadn't come even close to actually mastering it.

Come to think of it, what was the end goal of that book? What was the ultimate level of void shaping. I wasn't sure, but I suspected it was making a world. A void world. My power really had been preparing me for this for longer than I knew. "I...I think I can do it." I said slowly. Not now obviously. I'd need to invest in some serious mental enhancement to finish studying the void grimoire in time. That book might look like one volume, but given the absurd system of dictation it had more information than most library planets. Still, it was a start.

"I never doubted that, my boy." Said the old wizard fondly. "If I didn't think you could do it, I should have interfered much more in your business." I shot him a grateful smile, but he cut me off with a casual shrug. "Of course, I've been wrong before. But in the end what will be will be. I have faith that you can see this through...and if not. Well, I suppose we'll have to prepare for war eventually. As a true Endless he would be a much greater threat."

I hadn't been sure that capturing me would let him become a real Endless actually, Del had never come out and said it, and I had allowed myself to at least hope. Sadly it didn't seem like it was meant to be. That was fine. All I had to do was follow the advice Tifa had given me before we left to fight Luxord and his thugs. 'Don't fuck up.' It was hard not to smirk at how annoyed Cloud's aura had gotten when she said that.

"The issue becomes." I said slowly. "That I don't know where Scala ad Caelum IS. If I have to use it as a template and as an anvil too, I should probably figure out how to get there. I don't suppose you have some sort of portal device. Or coordinates. Or even a map would work, it doesn't matter as long as it can help me find my way." Granted, I still needed to find the other three wielders, but this seemed just as important.

Sadly, that wasn't to be. Merlin just sighed. "I'm afraid not, dear boy." At my frown he just held up a hand. "Don't lose hope. Once the X-blade is forged it should open the way to Scala ad Caelum. The X-blade was the hammer used in the creation of the multiverse, after all. Despite being fragmented under the direction of the first king of Scala ad Caelum, it knows its way back to the world forge. You need only continue your quest."

That was good, but it opened up another problem. "I'm guessing that they'll be guarding it. You said the organization leader, who I thought was named Xemnas no Xehanort but whatever, conquered it for B-guy. There's no way they don't have forces stationed there right?" So now not only did I have to gather and combine twenty keyblade wielders, I had to break into some weird fallen kingdom to use the damn thing.

Actually...that kind of worked. I could just think of it as one big heist. We were just stealing access to the world forge. Between Jim and I we could definitely swing that. As expected Merlin didn't hide the bad news. "Almost certainly." Agreed the old wizard. "However, I know for a fact you have your people training with an old friend of mine. Twenty keyblade wielders is no small force. You should be more than up to the challenge."

"Which means." I said. "We need to get started finding the last three. I don't suppose this burst of helpful interference includes a roadmap to the other three wielders?" Having talked to Sora, I was pretty sure I knew who they were. Kairi, the girl Sora seemed to have a huge crush on, Riku, his best friend, and King Mickey, an apparently anthropomorphic mouse that I remembered someone mentioning when we were in the Sphere of the Gods. Sadly that didn't help me FIND any of them.

Merlin chuckled. "That I can help with. If you're looking for Riku, you can find him in Quadratum. Mickey is there looking for him as well. As for Kairi...I cannot say. I've searched for her for some time, but sadly to no avail. I know you find her in time. I would look to Sora to guide you. That boy's heart is stronger than almost any other, and it is connected to hers in a way I doubt even the two of them really understand."

Huh. I might actually be able to understand better than he thought. After all, my heart was connected to someone else too. Two someones. I hadn't actually checked Sora's aura to see about connections, but give Roxas had used one to find him, that might be a good start. I stood up. "Alright. Quadratum next then. Do you happen to know a way to find the place? Because my ability to navigate worlds is...not great."

I'd never learned any of this shit. We'd just been randomly using keyholes to jump through to get back to the world of light, until we hit the tower and Master Yen Sid brought us here. Merlin just smiled. "Don't worry. Donald, Goofy, and Sora have a gummy ship, and are quite experienced. They can help you find the way." He stood as well, holding out a hand. "Be safe, dear boy. Your task is almost done."

Taking his hand, I shook once and then left. As I opened the door I saw Rana leaning against it, ear to the surface, but she stumbled back, pretending to have been raising a hand to knock. Rolling my eyes, I gestured for her to follow me and started filling them all in. Once thing was for sure. I hoped Merlin was right. Once this was over, I could finally rest for a while. Maybe another beach trip with my girls. I'd have to add that into the new world I was creating.

July 4th 2016 Traverse Town, 10:00 AM EDT

We obviously didn't up and leave for Quadratum at almost midnight. Merlin took his leave, but the rest of us decided to sleep at the old house. After informing my daughter that being unconscious did NOT count as sleep, I and the girls went to bed. I slept unusually well given the whole mess that was going.

In the morning, I rolled over to kiss each of my girls and told Zee. "Happy 4th of July by the way." I'd been keeping time based on the Gotham standard (since trying to do it regionally would have driven me insane given all the world hopping). I was avoiding calling my mother because of the whole Barbatos thing, though I'd included some news of what I was doing in the note I'd sent with Hana's bear.

Zee snorted. "Is it? Huh didn't notice. Huh, I've never really been too big on the holiday."

I shrugged. "I liked blowing things up when we could afford it. But fair enough." I grinned over at Drea. "I assume from your expression you have no clue what I mean by that?" At her nod and raised eyebrow I explained independence day real quick. "Anyway, you two ready for the trip to Quadratum? Two of three of our last three wielders there."

"About that." Said Drea. "Not to be negative, but how do we know for sure they'll help us? Sora agreed, but we don't know the last three. They might just decide it's too dangerous."

That was definitely a possibility, but I didn't think so. "I'm betting they won't." I said. "For a few reasons. One they're Sora's friends and he's helping. Two, the heartless are an extension of the dark multiverse. The keyblade wielders have been fighting them since time immemorial. If the Dark Multiverse becomes whole, it'll return balance to the darkness and quell the unstable hunger that results in the manifest darkness of the heartless."

That one was hands down one of the biggest aces up my sleeve for recruiting. While I hadn't run into many heartless, according to Sora the others hadn't been so lucky. Finding out that reforging the Dark Multiverse would dissolve the heartless (Rana would be fine since she was a real person made from parts of hearts, despite her connections with the heartless) meant I had a solid reason for any keyblade wielder to help me with my mission.

"Alright." I said climbing out of bed. "Let's go check in with Sora and the others." It was early, but Sora struck me as a morning person. I was guessing if he was up so was Rana. I was less concerned about that than I would have been with anyone else given Sora's personality.

As I walked downstairs, I confirmed that I was fine on that front, as I found Sora enthusiastically telling a dead eyed Rana all about his best friends, Riku and Kairi. I'm not sure the kid even realized how much he was talking about Kairi, but seeing my poor daughter looking so devastated was almost as sad as it was funny. "Hey all." I said as I came into the room. "How's everyone's morning going?"

Sora perked up, turning to us with a wide grin. "Oh! Hey guys! Morning. I was just telling Rana about my friends before we meet them. They'll definitely help you beat that bat guy. I think King Mickey will be super excited about stopping the heartless too. He's been working toward that for years, right guys?"

He turned to a bored looking Donald and a sleeping Goofy, who jerked awake at the question. "Huh?" Said Goofy blearily. "Oh, yup, King Mickey has always been trying to keep everyone from back home safe. I'm sure he'll want to help if we can really eliminate the heartless." The clutzy guard captain was every bit as excitable as Sora, and once he woke up a bit his voice burned with zeal.

Though I was curious about something else. Turning to the back corner, I caught sight of our Nobody team members. Roxas and Namine had been incredibly quiet since meeting Sora, both clearly torn on exactly how to react. Fixing my gaze on Namine, I asked. "About that, how will that affect the Nobodies? You guys aren't going to be hurt when we reforge the Dark Multiverse right?"

If they were, I'd have to figure out a way to tweak things. I wasn't willing to burn our teammates because I was impatient. It would be more than feasible to fix any problems with my abilities if I was willing to work at it. My Deception powers might be limited in some ways, but within their niche they were pretty damn strong.

To my relief, Namine just smiled. "No. Heartless and Nobodies are connected for sure but not like that. Actually, destroying the heartless will help us. When a Nobody dies, their consciousness just fades, since we don't have hearts of our own. But if you destroy a Nobody after the Heartless that came out of them is destroyed, the disparate pieces reform and create a whole Somebody. Destroying the Heartless basically means that even if we die we get to live on again later in another form."

Roxas grimaced. "Sadly I doubt the Organization will see it that way. Becoming a Somebody again would basically be no better than dying to them. I'd be shocked if we didn't come across quite a few of them guarding this Scala ad Caelum place. We need to move carefully once we get to Quadratum too. Based on Luxord's showing up here, ther Organization's information gathering abilities are as strong as ever. Probably Saix. The Luna Diviner has always been an annoying guy to deal with."

Sora, unexpectedly, looked highly troubled. "Really? Then are Riku and King Mickey going to be ok? If they beat us there they might attack them. Should we find some way to get in touch and warn them?"

I shook my head before Roxas could answer. "No. That would be a bad idea. No telling if they have some way of intercepting the contact. If they're smart, they could use us to figure out exactly where Riku and Mickey are without needing to track them down. No, from what you said those two are real powers. I wouldn't worry too much about them, especially if Mickey has managed to find Riku already."

Realistically I could have probably used points to arrange for some method of contacting them in secret, but if I was going to accomplish my task at Scala ad Caelum I'd need to get my hands on at least one, if not more intelligence and brain enhancing boosts. That void grimoire was a massive amount of information, and even with my current divine standards the chances of me managing to decode it in time were slim to none. That was if I dedicated all my time to it. It was even less likely if I just occasionally read through it while on my mission.

Not that I was lying to Sora. Mickey and Riku were both powerful fighters no weaker than Sora from what I was told, stronger in one of their cases. I didn't believe that they were helpless to protect themselves, especially if they were together. Which brought us to the current situation. "Speaking of the two of them, we should leave soon to try to catch up to them. Do you know how to get to Quadratum Sora?"

Like the clouds on a sunny day, the worry passed from Sora's face to be replaced with his usual beaming grin. "Of course! Or...well, no. But Merlin left me this!" He reached into his incredibly baggy shorts and pulled out a blue cube of crystal, covered with what looked like circuitry. "It's a navigation gummi! We can slot this into the gummi ship and it should show us exactly how to find that Quadbottom place."

Rana giggled slightly at the ridiculous mistake, and I was gratified to see hearing Sora gush about his girlfriend hadn't been too big a setback for her. I suppose getting another crush so soon after her first in Tifa had helped keep her from putting too much importance on it. I was secretly relieved. My relationship with Annabel what seemed like ages ago had messed me up bad for a while. I wanted better for Rana. Besides, a relationship this early in her development was just a bad idea. She had all those memories to fall back on, but she'd only really experienced a few months in the world.

"So where is your gummi ship?" I asked. I'd been wondering about that since I heard about it. Drea's friends had flown in one and I knew how big they were. The fact that Sora had one was convenient, but I somehow doubted it was in his bedroom, and I hadn't exactly seen an interspatial parking lot anywhere nearby.

"I'll show you!" He said cheerfully, gesturing for us to follow. I'd already packed up and so had the girls, so I saw no reason not to humor him. We followed him through Traverse Town, listening to the jovial wielder narrate his adventures here and tell us all about the heartless he'd fought on his last visit. The guard armor sounded interesting, considering my own skillset.

Finally, we made it to the same courtyard type district we'd arrived at, and Sora led us over to the exit, an absolutely gigantic set of double doors that had been behind us before and that I hadn't really noticed. "Ok...so this leads out to some kind of hangar space or like...sky harbor?" I said in confusion.

"Nope." Said Sora proudly. "Watch." Lifting his keyblade, he tapped it lightly against the door, and then stood back as it started to glow. The blazing key built up a charge for a minute and then launched a single beam at the door, manifesting a keyhole on the wood the size of a person. I recognized the effect, but weirdly, based on my aura sight this was a lot different. I memorized the movements of the energy to study later when I had time, but that would have to wait because the click of unlocking heralded the doors slowly swinging open on their own to reveal...space.

Like..just space. Empty blackness with stars in the distance and a series of floating asteroids surrounding. Parked like...ten feet from the doorway I could see a large brightly colored gummi ship. Sora turned to grin proudly at us. "This is the Excalibur. She's our gummi ship." He turned to shout to the ship. "Hey, time to go, come pick us up." At the sound of his voice the ship seemed to shudder and then flare to life, streaking over to hover in front of the door as if waiting.

"Nope." Everyone looked at me curiously. "I do not accept this." I gestured at the door. "This is madness. That's fucking SPACE. Where is the vacuum? We're breathing like five feet away from cosmic nothingness. The air should have been sucked from our lungs in a blink. Why is there gravity? Why is it still so warm? Do you know how COLD space is? This is absolute insanity!" I was just glad Wally wasn't here. He'd be having a nervous breakdown over this shit.

Zee patted me on the shoulder comfortingly. "It's ok baby. Let it out. We know the magic isn't fair." I glared at her, but she just smiled back sweetly, and since I couldn't stay mad at her I just rolled my eyes and stalked over to the edge of the doors to wait to get on. I stood by my point that this was nonsense, but she was right, lots of what we did was nonsense. I'd just deal with it like I always did. As we waited for Sora to help everyone board though, I did fish my phone out of my pocket. Time for an upgrade to my mental capabilities. I had ten thousand points from my daily charge, and that should be enough to get me started with a low level boost. Just to test the water. Then I could buckle down and really get started.

July 4th 2016 Traverse Town, 11:00 AM EDT

"So." I said as we climbed aboard the gummi ship (which was much bigger than it looked from a distance). "Quadratum. Pull up the directions. I hope this place isn't in the Dark Multiverse. Showing up there would be a problem for us at the moment." As Sora socketed the blue cube into a slot on the dashboard, the windshield of the ship flashed brightly and then a series of readouts began to flash across it.

"Nope. It isn't in the realm of light either." I almost jumped out of my damn skin at the high pitched voice. I flicked my eyes down to where it came from to see...a chipmunk. Standing on two legs. Wearing clothes. Well, a shirt anyway. There was even another one right next to him.

Rana squealed in joy. "Ooooh, look at them! They're so cute!" She scooped both of them up gently and started nuzzling her face against the little guys, who seemed too shocked to process what was happening. "Sora, who are these little cuties? And they can talk? I love them so much!"

Donald was snickering off to one side as Goofy tried his best to hide a grin. Sora, meanwhile just looked obliviously happy. "Oh, that's Chip and Dale, our navigators. They're the best. I wouldn't be able to read directions like these, but since these two are helping we should get to Quadratum no problem." He frowned at the chipmunks. "That's weird though, right. Like isn't dark and light all of it? Where else could it be?"

Chip wriggled free of my daughter's hands, glaring at her as he hopped back onto the dashboard. She pouted and set Dale down, though the second chipmunk was giggling delightedly rather than being upset. Chip smoothed down his fur a few times before exhaling loudly. "No." He finally said, squeaky voice even. "Light and dark are not all of it. Quadratum is in the realm of the unreal. It's a higher plane of existence. You need a specific kind of portal to reach it, Merlin enchanted the cube to provide a path."

I froze. That sounded...familiar. "Wait. It's in the SPHERE? Quadratum is in the Sphere of the Gods?" Because that was the only higher order dimension I knew of that required a special portal to enter.

Chip looked surprised (and isn't that a weird expression to try to puzzle out on the face of a chipmunk."Yeah." He said. "Some people call it that. I mean, plenty of special places are there. Like King Mickey's castle." That was true, wasn't it. When I first heard about the mouse king it had been in the sphere. His kingdom was in the magiclands just like the OZ. The thought made me briefly wonder how DG and Azkedelia were doing. I doubted we'd have time to stop in, but I hoped they were taking care of the pups.

"Alright." I said. "Well it sounds like we have our path lined up. Let's go ahead and set off then. Can you open the portal?" We hadn't been through a boom tube in ages. I wasn't worried about it affecting me this time. The whole reason for Del making me take the long way home was so I would be operating on the level of the Sphere and Could become a god. Now that I was one I should be able to use the boom tube either way without any problem.

"Get ready!" Squeaked Chip excitedly. "It's time for us to go." The little chipmunk had been smashing buttons on the dashboard for a minute or two and then finally jumped up onto the cube, using his whole body to push the thing deeper into the groove it sat in. When it clicked into place the circuitry blazed up brightly. There was a shuddering groan from the gummi ship before the whole thing flashed brightly, and a massive white tunnel of brilliant light shone into being in front of the ship.

Looking at the portal honestly kind of hurt my eyes, but it was hard to look away at the same time. A massive white hole in the universe, with rings of energy streaming endlessly down from within the heart of the portal. With a cry of triumph, Chip leapt over onto a steering console, and Dale did the same, each using their full body on one part of the dual controls, perfectly maneuvering the ship with their flawless teamwork.

The ship jerked and then blasted forward into the portal, and within a second white light consumed our vision. The sensation of being hurled through the void was different than last time when we went through the Arkham portal, but no less dizzying. I felt like my body was being pulled and stretched like taffy, but more than that, I could feel the way the void was being warped and torn by what we were doing.

My understanding of void energy wasn't where it needed to be, but it was still much higher than the last time I'd jumped between planes. I could see shifts in the space, movements in the warp and weft of creation that shouldn't have been visible, but between my aura sight, my divine nature, and my bloodline's connection to the void, I watched the universe torn apart and stitched back together a million times.

This portal wasn't a portal, it wasn't some hole we jumped through. We were all threads in a cosmic tapestry, being shredded and then restitched into place in a million different subplanes, each one elevating us higher, pushing us closer to the heights we were striving for. My mind was spinning, my eyes were bleeding, and if I hadn't been a god and a proto-endless I'm pretty sure I'd have literally gone insane. Hell even then, without that brief glimpse of the truth of Taylor's gift to give me some context for this level of reality it would still have been too much.

Finally something...clicked, and we were just suddenly fine. Standing there on the other side of the portal. I understood so much now. I knew why Del had forced me to go through the magiclands to leave the sphere. Going through a boom tube was an evolution or devolution. It was a complete restructuring on a fundamental level. It didn't unmake you, not completely, more like...a million partial unmakings.

No ship of theseus worries here, anyone who went through came out the same person, just...different. That said, the makeup of a deity was built to withstand this flawlessly, made to be altered in such a way. As a mortal, when I went through the first boom tube my level of existence had been raised, but if I'd gone back through it would have been returned to a normal human's. Only as a god could I move through a boom tube without experiencing any real changes.

The others looked much less shaken than I did, probably because without all my unique aspects they couldn't pick up what we'd just done. The only one besides me who seemed bothered was Rana, who with access to my bloodline, her mothers divinity, and the diluted for of aura sight, probably hadn't seen nearly as much, but had most likely born witness to something pretty fucking awe inspiring.

I stepped up to put and arm around her, and she leaned her head on my shoulder, closing her eyes as she tried to process what she'd just experienced. None of the others noticed though, eyes focused on...earth? "Um. Why are we here?" If Quadratum was on earth I'd have heard about it I was sure, and earth wasn't in the Sphere of the Gods. So what the fuck was going on?

"This is Quadratum." Chip said with finality. "Merlin's cube used the gummi ship as a focus to cast the boom tube enchantment. It opened us a portal directly to where we needed to go." He hopped over to study the thing. "It's not finished yet either. There's still coordinates locked in there, though they aren't usable yet." I looked at the familiar planet, and with my aura sight active I could see that it was...different, than it should be. This wasn't earth. At least not ours.

Zee leaned down to study the circuitry for a minute or two. "He's right." She said with interest. "Conditional unlock. Looks like we need all the wielders to get it to open. I assume this is how we get to Scala ad Caelum. Though I have no clue how we get back to the tower to pick everyone up. I know I won't be close to doing anything on that scale for years, no matter how much studying I do."

"I might." I grimaced. "That was high level void sorcery...kind of. I think with enough time I could do it. But I don't think I'll need to. Mickey is supposed to be here, and he was trained by Master Yen Sid. I bet he can get us back to the tower somehow. We'll just have to find him and see." I paused for a second. "Please tell me the direction in that cube have some sort of heading. That planet is huge, I can only imagine a tracking spell would fail too, otherwise the Organization would have tracked them down ages ago."

Chip snickered and kicked a button, bringing up an image on the screen. It was a map of the alternate earth, with a red dot over what looked like Tokyo. That was convenient. Ish. Tokyo was still huge, but it was a better starting point than 'the world'. Chip reached over and started hitting buttons. It only took a few seconds for us to see the ship's outside to fade completely from view through the windshield. Some kind of cloaking tech.

As soon as that was done, the two of them resumed their places on the sticks and started to steer us into the atmosphere. As we approached the city, I focused hard on it with my aura sight and was quickly surprised to find... almost nothing. Or at least, almost nothing alive. Unlike Gotham in the Dark Multiverse this place wasn't destroyed or damaged at all. It was just almost completely empty.

"Well." I said in suspicion. "That's going to make things easier at least." At the questioning looks from the others I gestured to the slowly approaching city. "There are like ten or fifteen living beings in that city. Finding Riku and Mickey might not be as hard as we thought. We have a one in five chance if we just walk up to a random person. Of course, the aura signatures are blurry and hard to make out. I don't know why...shit. They're wearing the coats."

I had noticed briefly that the coats could slightly obscure the auras of people wearing them when we found them originally, but since I was right next to everyone when they had them on it wasn't really an issue. Now, with a whole city between me and my targets the blurring effect was much stronger. I had trouble even identifying the exact location for any of the people here, never mind WHO they might be. That was annoying, though it would still be easier than finding two people in a crowded city, so I called it a net win.

As the ship finally came to a soft landing on top of a building with '104' on the front of it, we all climbed out and headed over to the edge to look out over the city. A massive skyline of skyscrapers that dwarfed even Gotham was arrayed before us. I sighed as I tried again to narrow down a location for the nearest signature and got nothing specific. Oh well, at least we had a general direction. "Alright folks." I said loudly. "Let's get moving. We're burning daylight and this place creeps me out. The sooner we find them and bail, the better."

July 4th 2016 Quadratum, 1:00 PM EDT

Quadratum was, as we'd seen from the rooftop, creepy as hell. Empty city streets were different without all the signs of destruction everywhere. You would expect it to be less eerie, but somehow the lack of damage made it much worse. It was like the people here had all vanished in the blink of an eye without any chance to resist. Some of the cars were literally in the middle of intersections, but completely untouched as all the drivers seemed to have vanished at the same time, and the cars just...stopped, where they were.

As much as I'd have liked to figure out what caused this, the auras in the city made that unwise. It wasn't just Mickey and Riku. There were other members of the Organization here too, and we needed to fucking move. As we headed for the nearest signature, I looked to Roxas, our resident expert in the Organization, to shed some light. "Hey, Roxas, any clue who might be around here? You heard of this place before?"

He shook his head. "No. Never heard of it. Probably not something they tell the rank and file. As for who might be here...I might. Most of the Organization were from Hollow Bastion originally, disciples of Ansem the Wise. A couple of them though, were from somewhere...else. Luxord was one of those. The other was Demyx. If the Organization has any connection to this place, it might be through them."

That tracked with what I'd been seeing actually, now that I thought about it. Aura was a complicated thing. Every aura had an endless amount of layers and frequencies hidden inside it. Some were obvious and right out in the open, some were so faint and vague they were only detectable if you knew to look. The place a person came from was a part of their makeup and definitely showed in their aura, being foundational to their growth. Luxord's aura had a certain resonance with the aura I was seeing here, though it was so faint I hadn't noticed it until Roxas pointed it out.

Presumably Luxord wasn't from here, but his Somebody most likely was. It had dampened that wavelength in his aura more than moving or leaving a place normally was, and if not for my perfect recall and my now much deeper understand of aura after that boom tube trip I never would have even noticed it.

I groaned. "Of course. Well at least he doesn't have fucking zombies alien mutants anymore. Namine, guessing you don't know any details about this place either?" We needed as much info as possible about Quadratum, but that didn't seem like it was in the cards.

She just shook her head sadly. "Sorry. I was...sheltered. Since I came into existence I spent most of my time locked up or hiding. I know some secrets about Sora and about the Organization through interacting with some of the members from time to time, but I've never heard of any place like this. Honestly, the whole city feels very strange to me. Places have memories, just like people, but this place has forgotten most of the people who lived here."

That was interesting. I could see the aura of the residents mixed into the flow of the objects, since being able to tell an object's owner was part of my skillset. This was clearly something different though, and having another ace in the hole would be helpful if we needed a better lead later in our search.

"Sure." Said Rana from one side. "Because that definitely didn't make this already horror movie creepy setting somehow ten times worse. Thanks for that Nami." The blonde giggled, sticking out her tongue. Apparently those two had gotten to know each other a bit when I wasn't around. I hadn't thought they were so close, but I was all for Rana having new friends.

Zee noticed too, and looked pleased. "Alright, no reason to be worried. There are seven keyblade wielders, plus a guard captain and a royal wizard here. We can handle ourselves. Just because the streets are empty and echo with the distant sounds of faint movement...shit, this place is terrible." She pouted at me. "Morgan why don't you ever bring me anywhere nice? I liked Destiny Islands but everywhere else has been pretty terrible."

To my surprise, Sora stopped dead and his head snapped over to stare at Zee. "D-destiny Islands? You guys have been to Destiny Islands?" The way he said that was almost...sad. Which wasn't Sora at all. He didn't do sad. Although thinking about it, I'd felt like there was something familiar about the kid for a while. I didn't know him, my memory was too good to overlook that, but he seemed similar to someone I'd seen in passing. Hearing the pain in his voice, that finally clicked.

"You're the kid!" I said in surprise. "The one from the pictures in that house. I didn't recognize you because you're much older now, but I should have. That hair is unmistakable. That would mean the other two are Riku and Kairi?" I hadn't gotten a glance at Riku's aura, exactly, but like I'd noted with Luxord I could somewhat tell where a person was from based on their aura. I'd seen the aura of Destiny Islands. If you asked me to isolate that signature in Sora's aura without knowing what it was then forget it, but having seen the place in person would make it much easier.

Smiling sadly, the kid nodded. "Yeah. If you found a picture of me back home with two others it was almost definitely them. A redhead and a boy with silver hair?" At my nod his sad smile turned wistful. "Yeah. I hope they're both doing ok. I haven't seen them in a long time. Riku is here at least, so we can find him soon. Kairi...who knows where she ended up. We got separated when I destroyed Ansem's heartless. You're sure she wasn't in Destiny Islands?"

"Nobody was." I said firmly. "At least, not the one we visited. Come to think of it though, that place was...odd. It was in the realm of darkness, but was much less dangerous than it should have been. It might have been the Upside-Down Man's presence there, but it also might not have been the real Destiny Islands. Maybe some kind of copy? It would explain why he was there. I doubt that creepy bastard hangs out in the real Destiny Islands. He even mentioned going where he wanted in the dark realm. I just didn't equate that with making a fake world."

That might nix my plan to find Riku based on his aura signature, since it almost definitely wouldn't be the same. Or maybe it was. I checked Sora's aura against the one I remembered from Destiny Islands and sure enough, the signature I'd seen in that place wasn't there. Oh well, the coats were dampening things too much for that to be viable anyway. It DID give us a possible lead for where Kairi was though. If she was on the real Destiny Islands we could presumably track her down pretty easily.

I was so distracted I didn't even remember Sora was hurting, but Rana did. My daughter strolled up to the boy and put her arms around him, pulling him into a tight hug. Sora, being a very huggy person, was happy to return it, with no intentions other than gratitude to a friend. He squeezed her back and they stood there like that for a minute, before I finally cleared my throat. Lack of impure intentions or not, some teenage boy clinging to my daughter for more than a few minutes was a hard no for me.

Rana glared at me as Sora pulled away, and I just shrugged apologetically, but I could tell from his aura the hug helped. Donald and Goofy, also gave the kid quick hugs, though reluctantly on Donald's part. Not out of lack of affection but more because he wasn't the affectionate type. It took a bit, but we weren't in THAT much of a hurry. Especially since we only had the one heading. The auras were so vague I could barely tell. I froze and then my head snapped, my armor rolling over my body and Tartarus coming to my hand as I snarled "Freeze", sending a burst of ectoplasm enhanced ice at the fifth floor of a nearby building.

The spell hit, detonating into a massive block of encapsulating ice...with nothing inside it. A series of sarcastic slow claps echoes across the buildings. "Well wasn't that impressive." Rumbled a rough, amused voice. "I thought I was being so sneaky too. You've got sharp senses kid." A man stepped out onto the roof of one of the shorter building, the hood of his cloak down to reveal a pale, scarred face with an eye patch over one eye.

"Xigbar." Snarled Roxas. "Shit." I hadn't heard the kid cuss much, so that didn't fill me with confidence. Still, if we knew who he was that would make beating him easier. I was more worried about how fucking stealthy he was. I'd only noticed him because I decided to look. He had somehow clouded his presence even more than the coat normally managed, and if I hadn't gotten lucky and looked around I never would have noticed him sneaking up on us.

"Hey there number thirteen." The ponytailed man said with an easy grin. "You look pretty good for a dead guy, kiddo. And your Somebody is walking around here with you to boot. You even have the little witch with you. What HAS Vexen been getting upto. I swear we talked to him about not pursuing projects that harm the interests of the organization." He shrugged. "Mad Scientists am I right? Can't live with them, can't reattach their heads if you cut them off."

Roxas looked genuinely scared of this guy. "Xigbar. What are you doing here? "Despite asking, I could tell he already knew, and his keyblade flashed into being in his hand. He was obviously hoping the other man wasn't going to say he was here to fight us, but wasn't stupid enough to actually expect us to be that lucky.

Xigbar's grin widened. "Ask a stupid question, tiger." He held out his hands and called forth some kind of weird purple sword guns. "You know why I'm here. Boss man your new buddies out of commission. They're getting awfully close to meddling with some things that shouldn't be meddled with. On account of our old working relationship, if you want to take your little honey bunny and bail, I'll look the other way this once. Without the metal man there I doubt the boss will bother chasing you down."

With an unimpressed snort, Roxas raised his keyblade to a guard position. "If you think that's even remotely possible you never knew me at all Xigbar. I don't abandon my friends. Ever."

"Is that so." Drawled a familiar and very angry voice. I winced. Shit. Right, they always moved in pairs. A form stepped from the shadows of another rooftop, familiar red hair cascading down his back. Axel. "Because I seem to remember that being what you're best at Roxas." The blonde flinched at the accusation, his face paling a bit. "You're pretty casual about orders aren't you Xigbar, offering to let him go?"

The ponytailed man shrugged. "It ain't easy coming back from the dead. I wanted to give him the chance to take his side piece and leave peacefully on account of our history. Seems like that isn't to be though." He cracked his neck. "Oh well, I tried. Guess we do this the hard way. Now." He said, his grin turning vicious as he raised his weird gun things. "Dance for me monkeys." And the world dissolved in a sea of light blasts.

You guys are going to love next chapter. Lots of batman stuff. As usual you can read 10k ahead on pat-reon at that site /malcolmtent hope you all enjoy.