BM - Chapter 17 - Puzzles and Pieces

Group A, consisting of Amelia, Kiara, and Ina, all walked towards their side of the Hatchery. Most of the buildings near the temporal shield had been destroyed or badly damaged by the fire blast from earlier. Kiara didn't really like to look at them.

They soon developed a system of searching the buildings. Amelia would enter first while Destabilized. She would quickly determine whether the building was safe or not and call out for the other girls. A couple buildings had fire traps hidden in them, so it was necessary.

One building stood out to them as they approached.

"That's an interesting symbol on the front," Ina commented. Just above the front door a symbol was carved into the building. It was intricate with hundreds of lines pointing off towards the right before sweeping back to the left.

"It almost looks like it's cut in half, though," Amelia wondered aloud. Kiara nodded.

"I would say it is. I think it was the symbol of this place," she said, looking around at the rest of the Hatchery.

"I'll tell the other two about it," Ina said before bringing the phone to her ear. "Yeah, we found an interesting symbol… What? You found one, too? Does it look like… Yeah, a bunch of small curving lines. Ours is on the right. Alright. Got it." Ina hung up the phone and put it back away.

"What did she say?" Amelia asked quickly.

"They found one similar, but it is on the left. A complete mirror to ours," Ina explained. Kiara nodded rapidly.

"That must be the other half!" she exclaimed.

"Let's see what it has in store for us then," Amelia said with a shrug, Destabilizing herself and entering the building. She returned a minute later and said it was clear. The group wandered around the first and only floor, investigating every nook and cranny they could find.

"This looks familiar…" Ina mumbled, "Hey Kiara?" she called for the Phoenix. Kiara walked over a moment later. Ina pointed at a crack in the wall. It was too perfect to be a random crack, though.

Kiara drew her sword from her belt and placed it into the crack and ignited it. Fire slipped into the wall and spread through unseen channels within. The room they were in became illuminated in a brilliant orange glow. Amelia quickly entered the room, as well.

"I'll assume this is a good thing?" she asked, judging by the amazed expressions on her friends' faces. They both slowly nodded, making Amelia laugh to herself quietly.

The flames spread all the way around the room until they gathered into a single spot on the floor. That section suddenly shifted, rotating several times before dropping down to reveal a hidden passageway.

Ina picked up the phone again and called Calliope. She opened her mouth to say something when the Reaper picked up, but she didn't say anything before putting the phone back down. She looked at the other two and shrugged.

"They already found it and are working on getting Gura's water magic to act like fire," she said, "Calli doesn't want to be interrupted."

"Once we go down there, we aren't going to be able to contact anyone. No signal will reach us down there." Amelia sounded slightly worried. Kiara patted her lightly on the back.

"We'll be fine, as long as we have each other's backs!" she said, trying to soothe away Amelia's worry. With a deep breath, the time traveler tried her best to push those thoughts away.

The hidden space that had opened reassembled a hole in the floor rather than an actual pathway. Since Phoenixes could fly, it made sense. Unfortunately for Amelia, this meant hitching a ride on Ina's tentacles, as she was slowly lowered down into the dark abyss.

Kiara tried to keep it bright, but her flames could only reach so far. She was very nervous about what her light might reveal.

The three of them reached the bottom after a minute or so of slow descent. The ground down here was far harder than the soft surfaces above them. The temperature had also dropped by at least twenty degrees, causing several shivers to go up everyone's spines.

Amelia made sure no traps were up ahead, as the group silently made their way down the tunnel. It seemed to be some kind of hidden basement. It had very clearly fallen into disuse, though, with water seeping from the walls and ceiling. Small puddles had formed on the ground, giving Amelia and Ina some small scares.

"This place is so drab…" Kiara tried to start up some conversation. Ina's heart jumped at the sudden talking, but it quickly calmed back down.

"I doubt anyone was down here, even when this place was… busy…" Amelia chose her words carefully. Kiara nodded hesitantly.

"What do you guys think we'll find down here? What's the key we're looking for?" the Phoenix asked.

"Judging by what we needed to do to get in, probably something involving your magic again," Ina answered.

"You think this place will react badly to your magic, Ina?" Amelia asked. Ina nodded.

"I think this place was designed to keep not only Reapers away, but also the Ancient Ones. They wanted to collect Droplets not long ago, after all."

"It isn't unreasonable to assume that. Let's just make sure that only I mess with time here," Amelia passive-aggressively commented. Ina frowned slightly, feeling a hint of guilt build up inside of her.

"I'm sorry that I did that, Ame…" she apologized. Amelia smiled sadly.

"I've already forgiven you for that, Ina. All of us have let emotions control us into doing something stupid. It's just a part of being mortal." Ina felt her guilt melt away, feeling much better now. Kiara perked up.

"Calli is gonna need a lot of our help after we finish here. It's gonna be brutal on her mind to suddenly feel all these crazy strong emotions," Kiara worried for her friend. Amelia patted her on the back, trying to soothe her the same way the Phoenix had done for her earlier.

"We'll all take care of her, Kiara. She's my friend, too," Amelia assured her.

"She's been much nicer recently. Even if me and her aren't friends just yet, I think we can be soon," Ina said as well. Kiara smiled brightly.

"I'm so glad I met you all!" she cheered. Amelia and Ina giggled to themselves.

"I would say, 'don't throw out death flags like that,' but you can't really die," Amelia mocked. Kiara pouted.

"I can die, for your information, just not by normal means," she whined. Amelia's smile fell to a neutral expression.

"So I've heard…" she responded. Kiara and Ina followed the mood and sighed deeply.

"You and Calli talked about a lot while in the Underworld. She told me most of it, but there was something she kept leaving out," Kiara said, solemnly.

Amelia slowed her walking pace to a crawl, feeling her heart beat faster. Her throat tried to close, but she held it open. This was not the time to back away from this conversation. She knew Kiara would catch wind of it sooner or later. It would be better to just tell her now.

"Since nearly everyone else knows, I might as well tell you, too." Ina opened her mouth, but closed it quickly. If Amelia wanted to talk about it, then there was no reason to stop her. Kiara, surprisingly, didn't say a word. "The reason I fucked up my timeline so badly wasn't because I wanted to save my parents. I was going back in time because the girl I liked got taken by my best friend."

"But wasn't your best friend…" Kiara started, but trailed off, realizing who it was Amelia was referring to. The time traveler nodded.

"Ina got with her without telling me. Also, the girl I had a crush on was Gura…" Amelia braced herself for whatever inevitably loud noise the Phoenix was about to make.

"Oh…" was all the other girl offered. Amelia relaxed and looked over at Kiara who had stopped walking by now. Her face was pale and her eyes had small tears in them.

"Are you ok?" Ina asked her. Kiara wiped at her eyes and smiled weakly.

"Y-yeah… it just hits close to home," she replied, shakily, "I'm not very subtle about my own crush on Calli, but I am in a very similar situation." Ina squeezed Kiara on the shoulder to steady her.

"When she gets those emotions, I'm sure you have a chance, Kiara," Amelia said, trying to not give away anything. Kiara's eyes lit up.

"Really?! You think so?!" she yelled, her loud voice reverberating off the walls, making it seem even louder. Amelia rubbed her ears and nodded. "Then I bet you'll have a shot with Gura!"

"This Gura has no idea about any of that, though, and I would like to keep it that way. I've already promised Calli and Ina I would talk to her about it, but I just need some more time…" Amelia responded.

"I'll try my best to keep it a secret, too!" Kiara saluted her. Amelia shook her head and laughed. It wasn't really the promise she wanted to hear, but it would do for now.

"There is something else bugging me, though…" Amelia said, getting the serious attention of the other girls again. "That book," Amelia pointed to the floating purple book next to Ina.

"Is it about how it ended up in your Ina's apartment?" Ina asked, to which Amelia nodded.

"I can accept the fact that one of us put it there, but then I start to wonder what else might have happened like that…" she turned to Kiara, "You mentioned you knew a time traveler at some point?"

"I don't know who they were or what kind of relationship I had with them. I just know that I knew one in the past," Kiara answered.

"And your mystery godmother," Amelia then turned to Ina, "It almost sounds like someone hiding their identity from you…"

"You might be right, but what exactly are you saying, Ame?" Ina didn't want to assume what Amelia was thinking.

"There's got to be more loops that we don't know about yet. All of this," she gestured around her, "seems too perfect to not be set up. It is just a question of who is setting it up."

'It is too soon to be making assumptions like that, but we concur that more loops most likely exist,' the Ancient Ones chimed in, having been incredibly quiet recently. Ina agreed with them.

"That's a bit far-fetched right now, Ame. Let's worry about what we're here to do right now," Ina said, trying to get the group back on track. Amelia shook her head to clear it.

"Yeah, right, sorry I guess I'm just reading into this too much. Maybe I just want all this to mean something more…"

"It already means a lot to everyone involved. I'm getting my memories back and Calli can get her mortal emotions!" Kiara lighted the mood the best she could and began walking down the tunnel again. Amelia and Kiara followed suit, smiling slightly more than before.

They walked for a little while longer, making small talk about nothing in particular until the tunnel opened up into a larger room. Kiara noticed several lights mounted to the walls and lit them with her flame. The room became illuminated with shaky candle light, revealing what the shadows hid.

Intricate designs patterned the walls around them with several openings. They were similar to the ones that Kiara had used to get them down here in the first place.

"We need more Phoenixes…" Ina mumbled. Amelia agreed sadly.

"Maybe we should get Gura. They've probably run into this issue, too." Kiara shook her head.

"Calli wouldn't walk away from this to get help. She wants to teach Gura how to use her water magic as a tool, so she'll work through this with her. Let's do the same," Kiara said, taking her sword off of her belt and lighting it ablaze.

"I have an idea, but it might take a few tries." Amelia looked around at the walls.

"What is it?" Ina asked her. Amelia took a deep breath.

"I can probably emulate whatever that barrier did and create more of Kiara's swords in order to fit everything together. The problem is I don't know how many hits these walls can take if we miss," she explained. They thought this over for a minute before Kiara came up with something.

"Your whole power relies on uncertainty, right?" Amelia nodded, surprised by Kiara's large word usage. "Since I'm a Phoenix, there should be a lot of me in other timelines. Can you pull those versions in here and have them walk their swords up to the holes?" Amelia ran the idea through her head and nodded to herself. Theoretically, they didn't have anything like Gura's split personality to worry about here, so it should be safe.

"Ina, be ready in case something goes wrong," Amelia asked of the Priestess. Ina, too, remembered what had happened with Gura, so she nodded and prepared to fight or escape just in case.

Amelia and Kiara positioned themselves in the middle of the room and got ready to Destabilize. Amelia put a hand on Kiara's back and began searching timelines. Sure enough, there were a lot of Kiara's out there, so she pulled one in and saw the Phoenix begin to glitch and stutter in reality.

Kiara made a few awkward sounds, getting used to the feeling of being Destabilized. Soon enough though, it felt relatively normal.

"Alright, now try to be unsure about which direction you're going to walk in," Amelia asked. Kiara took a few deep breaths before taking a couple steps forward. It felt like her entire being was buzzing and trying to get pulled backwards. She stopped moving and turned to look behind her.

A few paces towards one of the other holes, another version of herself stared back. Both of their eyes went wide and suddenly the other version was gone. Kiara felt the buzzing and tingling stop and she re-stabilized.

"That was pretty cool looking," Ina commented from the side. Amelia hummed an agreement.

"I guess just don't turn around and look at yourself, then." Kiara attempted to split into two a few more times and eventually could make it nearly to the hole. Amelia seemed satisfied with that progress. "Let's try four now."

Amelia increased the Destabilization on Kiara, causing the other girl some mild discomfort. Once she had gotten used to the more intense feeling, Kiara attempted to walk in all four directions at once. A few steps in, her legs began to give out and she fell to her knees. It was just too strong for her to handle right now…

"S-sorry…" she apologized, knowing this meant they might not be able to finish their objective here. Ina patted her on the shoulder to calm her down. Amelia stood off to the side, thinking of a way around the problem.

"Give me your sword," she said suddenly. Kiara stood up, feeling much better now, and put the sword carefully into Amelia's hands. It was hot, really hot. Amelia almost dropped it just because of the heat. However, not only was the sword incredibly hot, but it was also incredibly heavy. Amelia was straining her arms to just keep the thing from falling to the floor. Kiara quickly took it back.

"You want to try to split?" Kiara asked. Amelia took a few strained breaths and nodded.

"Y-Yeah, but I would only do two of them. You would still do the other two," she explained her new plan, "How long will the sword be lit after you let go?" Kiara thought for a moment.

"Somewhere around a minute. I can increase the fire magic inside it so it burns for longer, but I don't think you'll be able to handle it." Amelia cleared her throat and put one of her hands on the hilt of the sword just below Kiara's. The flames became distorted as the sword was Destabilized. Slowly, Amelia pulled a second sword out from the first.

"Let's see how this works…" Amelia mumbled, trying to ignore the burning in her arms. She closed her eyes and started to walk forwards. Not only would she have to split herself, something she had never done before, but she would also need to split the sword again. That much Destabilization was unstable, so it would only last for a very short period of time.

Amelia opened her eyes and turned around to see herself standing behind her looking back. They both smiled before the other one disappeared along with both swords.

"I can't do it either…" Amelia sighed. That was already her limit and she was nowhere near the walls of the room. Ina walked over.

"Give me one of those Destabilized swords," she said, firmly. Amelia rubbed her temples.

"I don't know how long it'll last in a non-Destabilized person's hands, but let's find out…" she replied, almost out of ideas at this point.

All three girls gathered and put one hand around the hilt of the flaming sword. The flames flicked in and out of reality, becoming incredibly Destabilized. Slowly, all three of them pulled out their own version of the sword.

"I traveled through time, too, Ame. I can do this," Ina said confidently. Amelia nodded and smiled. The time traveler then split Kiara in two and they all began walking towards their respective walls.

Amelia could feel her head threatening to explode at any moment. This much Destabilization at once was difficult to keep going, but she had to. For Calliope, Kiara, and her own sake. She didn't want to fail her again. Not when they were so close…

She struggled to raise the sword up to the opening, straining every muscle in her body in order to do so. She heard Ina struggling similarly.

"Let's all do it at the same time," both Kiara's called out. The Phoenix was getting used to being split into two versions.

"A-Alright," Amelia and Ina called back. They both got their swords into their respective spots and said they were ready.

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

All four girls pushed the swords into the openings in the walls. The veins inside the walls suddenly illuminated a bright blue and orange, much in the same way as before. However, this design was even more intricate, spreading out into thousands of branches. They swirled around the room, eventually coming together in the very middle on both the ceiling and floor.

A bright orange pillar bridged the two and began emanating a massive amount of heat. Ina and Amelia had to endure it, since the process didn't seem finished just yet.

There was a flicker of light blue from within. Then, there was another, and another, and another. Soon streams of light blue ran down the orange pillar, bleeding into the floor.

"That's…"

"Pure Flow…"

Somehow, Pure Flow was being created here at the hatchery.

The orange pillar faded, as the flames in Amelia and Ina's swords ran out. The Pure Flow stayed, making a small puddle in the center of the room.

"We've got to tell Gura about this…" Kiara said, still in awe at what had just happened. The two versions of herself merged into one and the other swords disappeared.

"AO-chan take this and keep it safe," Ina asked. A tentacle sprouted from behind her and sucked up all of the Pure Flow on the ground.

"You think that disabled the barrier?" Amelia asked Kiara.

"Probably, I don't know what else that light show could've done," she replied.

"Alright, then let's-" A sudden, loud thud caught the attention of Amelia and Kiara. They quickly turned to the source of it and saw Ina had collapsed to the ground.

"INA!"

Author's Note: And so the problems begin again. Ina has been knocked out by something. Let's hope it doesn't affect anyone else.

Lots of talking here, but I think a lot of it was necessary. We haven't seen much of Kiara and Amelia still had some things on her mind to talk about. This also means that the only person who doesn't know the truth about Amelia's past is Gura herself. Hopefully Amelia chooses to reveal that to her sooner rather than later.

Loops have finally been introduced, but I can't say much more than that they are important.

The next chapter will deal with Group B (Gura and Calliope), so you'll have to wait a little longer to see what happens with Ina. However, I think Gura's use of magic will be quite interesting to you guys.

Next Chapter: Group B - Gura and Calliope
Any feedback/criticism is appreciated!