G'day! A random idea I had after seeing some of the stories from the Adventrix thanks to Shiori. In this case, I'll put my author's comments at the end instead of taking up too much space at the top here, so for now:
Enjoy~!
Advent Dreaming
At first, all Shiori was aware of was the pounding headache she was experiencing for some unknown reason. It made it very hard to think of much else, like what happened a few moments earlier. Or was it a few hours earlier? Days, perhaps? The Archiver wasn't sure.
The next thing she became aware of was a groan to her right. The voice was easy to recognise, a Demon of Sound would be hard to forget for most people she figured. More noises came from her left, a quiet "Bau…" followed by a "Ui…" could be none other than the ever-faithful demonic guard dogs she'd become so acquainted with.
Shiori wanted to open her eyes, but could already tell there was a light right above her and doing so would likely be painful. Though, through her eyelids, the light faded a moment later.
"Shiori…?" yet another familiar voice, her 'pet rock,' as she liked to call the Gem of Emotions.
Finally opening her eyes, Shiori made out Bijou standing above her; the cause of the light fading away she realised was the rock girl was blocking it.
Thankfully, her headache started to go away, letting Shiori sit up with help from her companion. Now that she could look around at their surroundings, her curiosity was piqued. All five members of Advent were in a fairly luxurious room, covered in scarlet decoration with three couches, a coffee table, a screen that seemed to be some sort of TV with an unfamiliar game on it, and a few other bits and pieces you might find in a lounge room or playroom. Two of the couches were facing each other with the coffee table in between, while the third couch was facing the TV screen.
On the opposite side of the room to where the TV was, an opening led out into a long hallway. The scarlet-theming continued down the hall, though it was more or less bland compared to the room Advent were in.
Shiori also noticed there was a very low, almost inaudible rumbling sound that almost sounded like engines, further raising her curiosity and confusion.
Shiori was also able to confirm what her ears had told her moments before, spotting Nerissa on one of the couches next to her, with both Fuwawa and Mococo on the couch facing the TV.
Nerissa slowly opened her eyes, placing a hand against her head as she sat up. "Man, what just happened?" the demon wondered aloud as she spotted Shiori and Bijou looking at her.
"Friday night, I guess," Shiori joked, choosing to hide her own confusion for the moment.
"Shiorin~," Nerissa chuckled, before looking around in confusion. "Well, at least it's comfier than jail."
"And we don't have to smuggle in a game console. Though not that I recognise the console or game over there," Bijou commented, pointing towards the TV.
Shiori stood up from where she had been on the floor, and took a closer look at the mysterious tech, realising with a level of excitement that it was in fact something she'd never seen before. While part of her was worried about their situation, the Archiver in her saw new knowledge to gain, new stories to archive and new mysteries to unravel.
"This room seems pretty high-tech," Nerissa commented, picking up a device on the coffee table that looked more like a sword hilt.
Shiori was about to respond before noticing something on top of some shelves near the TV; a framed picture of nine teens and a kid standing in front of an old temple in a forest. They seemed happy, though the Archivist did note that one of the older teens was unhealthily pale. But her chalcanthite-blue eyes seemed to draw Shiori in, her expression even as a young teenager giving a feeling that she had many untold stories to explore.
A sudden voice from a PA system broke Shiori's trance though, waking the twins with a jolt too.
"Attention crew, systems have detected an anomaly within the ship, located around the Sleeping Knights' quarters. Tech Team Tarlo has been unable to get into contact with the Knights. A security team has been deployed, however, we've decided to continue on to Earth instead of making an emergency stop as we're minutes away. Queen Sonia of Qeios has been notified and Qeios Guardians will be ready to board as soon as we drop out of hyperspace. In the meantime, the Scarlet Eviscerator will be entering lockdown."
"What's happening?" Mococo and Fuwawa asked in sync, trembling as they took in the unfamiliar surroundings.
"Well, I'd say that announcement gives us a few answers. Like the fact that we're apparently on a spaceship in hyperspace called the Scarlet Eviscerator, and we're en route to Earth," Shiori noted.
"But it brings up other questions like, what is Qeios? Who are the Sleeping Knights?" said Bijou.
"It also doesn't answer why or how we're here," Nerissa continued.
Shiori grinned. "No, but it's exciting~!"
"It's scary…" Fuwawa commented.
"Ui…" Mococo agreed.
"C'mon~ We managed to break out of a jail the gods put us in, we can get out of this!" everyone looked at Shiori for a moment, before Nerissa smiled gently.
"Shiorin's right, we'll figure out what's going on and find a way out in no time~"
The twins looked at each other for a few seconds, before nodding and standing up, brandishing their claws. "Bau bau!"
Shiori looked to Bijou with a smile. "You in, Biboo?"
The small girl hesitated for a moment, before nodding. "Yeah, I'm all in."
Well, it sounds like we're still a few minutes away from being found… Shiori thought, noting that the opening that led to the hallway was now closed due to the lockdown. Glancing back at the shelves, she spotted what appeared to be a journal of some sort. Grabbing it, she took note of the white star on the black cover. In the bottom right corner read 'Our Story – Stella Khai.'
"Hm, well Stella Khai, don't mind if I do~," she said to herself, opening the journal and flicking through to a random page.
Echo was slowly being forced back by Estella.
"Rock…hhnnnggg…I can't hold this," he grunted.
Well, there's no other option. Please work, I beg of you…
Just as Echo was about to be overpowered again, I sent a massive blast of power towards Estella. She was sent flying back into a building.
"Shaun!" came the voice of a girl. I looked behind us and saw a girl that looked similar to Echo who was also wearing Royal Guard trainee armour.
I looked to the boy.
"Echo, this is my fight. Stand back now," I told him.
"But Rock! You're weapon-less!" he said. I simply smiled.
"Am I?"
I reached out and concentrated.
Please…
Finally!
A blue flame gave way to the same black sword I had used to defeat Deathbringer in my mind four years ago.
My left eye ignited in a bright blue flame.
"Whoa…" I heard both Echo and the girl say behind me.
Estella came walking out of the dust and rubble as if nothing had happened to her, though now her right eye was ignited in a bright pink flame.
Shiori hummed amusedly. "This girl sounds like Black Rock Shooter," she glanced back up at the photograph, once again looking at the pale girl. "…if that's her, she looks like Black Rock Shooter too…"
"What've you found, Shiorin~?" came the sing-song voice of Nerissa as the Demon approached her from behind.
"If I'm interpreting this correctly, this journal is used to keep track of this group's adventures. I can only assume they're the Sleeping Knights," Shiori responded, handing the journal to Nerissa and pointing out the picture.
Nerissa scanned over some pages, intrigue clear in her expression. "They seem to be strong fighters. Though that makes me a little worried about where we are."
Shiori gave her a comforting smile. "Don't worry Rissa, we've got FuwaMoco on our side, and it's not like you or Biboo are bad in a fight. Nothing can go wrong!"
Nerissa looked at the photograph, sighing. "I'm just scared we might not be able to go home."
Shiori wanted to say something to ease her fear, but if she was honest, even she wasn't sure if going home was an option to them right now. And as much as she wanted to archive all she could in this new world, she knew they would all be strangers in an unknown land with nowhere to call home here.
Not that that had really stopped them after their Jailbreak, but at least they were native to that world.
It was then that there was a light shudder. Shiori and Nerissa looked back at the others, noting that Bijou was messing with the TV, managing to bring up what appeared to be CCTV around the ship.
Only…
"There are thousands of CCTV cameras on this ship…just how big is it?" Bijou wondered aloud.
"Hey, isn't that the hallway outside where we are?" Shiori said as one of the security feeds showed movement.
"Shiori, most of the hallways look the same," Bijou brushed her off.
"No I think she's right, look," Nerissa pointed. Sure enough, a group of armoured men were gathering outside a wide door that looked an awful lot like the door to their current room.
"…why does their armour look like it's from Destiny…" the Rock questioned.
"They're gonna open it," Fuwawa stated, standing with her sister in a defensive position.
For a moment, Shiori thought of picking up the sword hilt that Nerissa had looked at on the table, but it wasn't close enough to make a move for as the door opened. The Guardians entered the room, aiming rifles at the five girls. "Put your hands where we can see them," one of them demanded with an Australian accent.
The Advent girls had little choice, doing as they were told for now. Though Shiori slightly eased up when another person entered the room. She was dressed in subtle but fancy grey and gold armour, had black hair with a red streak on the front and grey eyes. It was one of the oldest-looking girls in the picture on the shelf, though clearly the picture was an old one as the woman in front of them was in her late twenties or early thirties.
"Do you know who I am?" the woman asked, her Australian accent strong. All of Advent shook their heads. "So then I assume you're not from Earth. I'm Sonia Borne, Queen of the Qeios Empire and member of the Sleeping Knights. Would you girls mind telling me how you got here?"
"Well, actually…" Shiori stepped forward, lowering her arms cautiously. "We were wondering the same thing. We don't actually know where here is, Your Majesty."
Sonia's expression seemed to soften a little bit, and she motioned for the Qeios Guardians to lower their guns. "Then I guess I should be asking where you came from, and who you are," her voice still retained most of the authority it had before, but was a lot more gentle now.
"I'm Shiori Novella, Archiver of HoloAdvent," Shiori introduced.
"I'm Nerissa Ravencroft, HoloAdvent's Demon of Sound."
"Koseki Bijou, Advent's Gem of Emotions."
The twins had moved closer to Shiori when she advanced, ready to protect her in-case things went bad, but upon noticing everyone else was calming down, they lowered their claws. "Bau bau… I'm Fuwawa Abyssgard!"
"Bau bau! I'm Mococo Abyssgard!" Mococo sniffed for a moment. "You don't smell bad, so we'll trust you for now."
Sonia seemed vaguely amused at the twins' introduction and Mococo's comment, but looked at everyone with interest.
Shiori continued: "We actually are from Earth, but I think it might be a different Earth."
"Ahh, so then I presume you're Dreamers from the Wake? Though, last I checked the Wake didn't have demons, human gems and inus so perhaps you're from another universe entirely…" Sonia commented.
"You seem oddly calm about the prospect of us being from another universe…" Shiori noted.
"Well, it's not exactly the first time we've dealt with that sort of thing. Though usually I'd have Stella and Rika's help on these matters… Considering none of the Knights that were on the Eviscerator are here, I can only imagine you five somehow swapped places with them. Unfortunately, Lyla and Lara are off on a mission, Jane's busy with royal duties and Sally is taking a much-needed break now that the war is over, so without Stella, Tarev, Savara, Rika, Matt and Felix, we don't have our main defence team," Sonia sighed.
"Wait, if you've dealt with this before then you have a way to send us back, right?" Bijou enquired.
Sonia nodded. "It will take some time, but we should be able to lock onto where you came from using particle remnants of the anomaly that sent you into this room. Hopefully, we'll get my team back in the process too."
The five Advent members let out a collective sigh of relief, though Shiori was quick to give Sonia a grin. "Well, in the meantime, I have a lot I want to ask about regarding this universe~!"
Sonia chuckled. "I suppose I should expect nothing less from an Archiver, huh? Very well, we should head back to Qeios first, then I'll answer whatever I can for you. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't also curious about where you've come from too," the Queen smiled. She turned to one of the Guardians next to her. "Let the research team know what's happened, tell them getting the Sleeping Knights back is their top priority. Also tell them to check with Queen Amea of Zaloudek whether or not her mental connection to Stella is still up, that could help us pinpoint their exact dimensional location."
"Right away, Your Majesty," the Guardian confirmed, leaving with the rest of the men.
Shiori was a little surprised they'd leave their Queen without guards, but that surprise was short-lived as two figures who looked like Royal Guards appeared in the doorway. They appeared to be twins, which Shiori found amusing considering her Twin Guard Dog companions.
"Rayna, radio Liam and Ariana, tell them to stay with Jane as she'll have to head back to her home as the acting Queen again without the twins. Shaun, get the Raven ready to fly, we might as well take it back to Qeios," Sonia informed the twin guards.
Shaun, wasn't he mentioned in the bit I read of that journal? I guess Rayna is the other Royal Guard girl that showed up and called his name, Shiori realised upon hearing the boy's name.
"Actually, the Guardians received reports of a troublemaker in Accordia. They were wondering if you wanted to check it out," Shaun quietly said in a surprisingly shy voice, and surprisingly American too considering everyone else Shiori had heard so far were Australian.
The Queen sighed, glancing back at HoloAdvent. "Well, you wanted to learn about this universe, why don't we start by dealing with some trouble in my Empire's main trade city," she smirked.
This time it was FuwaMoco who responded energetically. "Bau bau! Let's do it!"
"Nothing better than archiving as it happens," Shiori smirked.
Nerissa smiled. "Sounds interesting, sure."
Meanwhile Bijou jumped up with a grin. "Let's go!"
Sonia laughed. "Then let's see what you Advent girls have to offer."
With everyone excited to see a new world now that Sonia had proven herself to be a friend, they followed the Queen and her guards through the maze of hallways until they reached a large open hangar with starfighters and shuttles all around. Sonia led the girls to a black 45-metre-long ship with a Sleeping Knights logo on the sides. "Welcome aboard the Raven, our trusty shuttle that's served Stella and her father for decades now," Sonia grinned as they all boarded.
"Wow, our first time on a spaceship!" Bijou exclaimed.
"Technically you're already on one," Sonia chuckled.
"That reminds me, how big is the Scarlet Eviscerator?" Shiori enquired.
"The Eviscerator is a Subjugator-class Dreadnaught, 4,845 metres in length and armed to the teeth with the best offensive and defensive tech that Qeios Shipyards can supply. Not many ships in this galaxy can go toe-to-toe with her, she's the best of the best when it comes to warships," Sonia explained, causing Bijou's eyes to go wide in awe.
"Whoa, that's big…" Fuwawa said.
"Mhm," Mococo agreed.
Shiori was surprised, not only at what Sonia had said about the Scarlet Eviscerator, but about the interior of the Raven. After coming up the boarding ramp, they were in another lounge room-styled area, though this one was much smaller than the previous one. There was a small kitchenette attached to the front wall, along with a couch-like seat, a table and another TV screen throughout the room.
The ramp closed behind them, and Shiori felt the shuttle lifting off, leading her to make her way down a hallway and end up in the cockpit where Shaun and Rayna were flying.
"Damn, that's a sight you don't see every day," Nerissa commented behind her, both of them watching as the ship flew through the expanse of space towards a planet that looked very similar to the Earth they were used to, though with different continent formations.
Rayna chuckled from the co-pilot's seat. "Well, for us it kinda is."
"I almost don't want to go back, this is cool," Shiori gasped.
"Mhm, but I'm sure the Novelites will miss you if you stay. I know I would, Shiorin~," Nerissa said, embracing Shiori from behind.
"So needy, Rissa," Shiori teased.
"We all would, right Moco-chan?" Fuwawa's soft voice rang through the cockpit.
"Ui, we would," Mococo agreed, both the twins joining the hug.
"Yeah, we need you Shiori," Bijou added, stepping in front of Shiori and also hugging her.
Shiori was overwhelmed, if a little confused why they had taken her comment seriously. "Aw, you guys. You're gonna make me blush~!" she lightly chuckled. "Of course I won't be staying behind you sillies, I'm a HoloAdvent member, remember?"
"Well, if things go as planned, chances are you might be able to return here any time you want," Sonia commented as she walked past, leaning on the pilot's chair behind Shaun.
"You know how to excite a girl," Shiori joked.
"I wouldn't be married to the Ice Queen if I didn't," Sonia shot right back with a wink.
"You mean Jane, right?" Shiori connected the dots in her mind.
"Yep. Now you see why I sent my Royal Guards with her," the Queen smirked.
"Being married to an Ice Queen sounds like it'd be useful in Summer," Nerissa quipped.
"As an Aussie in the Wake, you have no idea how bloody right you are," Sonia laughed.
Advent finally let go of Shiori, the shuttle entering the atmosphere taking their attention, which led to Sonia stepping back to her.
"Alright, time for me to ask a question. What's the meaning behind the Holo part of your HoloAdvent name? Seems out of place," she enquired.
"Oh, it's short for Hololive, the company we're part of. Kind of like a streamer slash idol agency sort of deal," Shiori happily explained.
"I see. So I take it you're singers then?"
Shiori nodded. "More or less. There's a reason Nerissa is called the Demon of Sound."
Sonia glanced at the Demon in interest. "Well, perhaps if we can have it so you can travel freely between dimensions, I might ask you girls to help out at a show in the future," she smiled. "Stuff like concerts are an important thing for keeping people here in high spirits, considering some of the shit we go through. Whether it be the Empire or the Vong, Qeios has been through a lot in the past few decades."
"Well then, a Hololive concert could be just what your people need," Shiori grinned.
"Some inter-dimensional performers might make things interesting," Sonia laughed, taking a seat to the side.
Shiori moved forward to where Nerissa was standing. "I think we should call this ship the Nerissa," she said, surprising the Demon.
It only took a moment for her to realise the joke Shiori was making. "I don't recall giving you all permission to board me," she teased.
"Just another Saturday night for you, right?" Shiori shot back teasingly.
Nerissa let out a faux gasp. "Shiorin~! Don't give them the wrong idea," she smirked.
"We're arriving in Accordia," Rayna announced, leading the Advent girls to marvel at the beautiful Final Fantasy XV-inspired ocean-side city.
Though Shiori did take note that some of the inland parts of the city showed damage, which Sonia quickly commented on. "Accordia was hit hard during the recent war, the invaders launched a surprise attack here while most of our forces were occupied overseas. We've mostly gotten it back in shape, but there's a few spots still where the battle damage can easily be seen."
"Even so, it's more like something out of a game than a real city," Bijou commented in awe.
Shaun brought the ship down near the edge of the city. "The troublemaker was last reported around here," he said as he powered down the shuttle.
"Alright. Well, Fuwawa and Mococo seem confident with those claws of theirs, but the rest of you can take these Q-Tech Blasters for protection. They're set for stun so don't worry about accidentally killing the target," Sonia tossed some blaster pistols to Shiori, Nerissa and Bijou.
"I don't think I'll need this," Nerissa noted as she pulled out her tuning rod.
"Understood, that works too," Sonia shrugged, taking the blaster back.
Once more, Sonia led Advent and her Royal Guards out of the shuttle, and they cautiously looked around for anything suspicious. Though in Advent's case, they were mostly just looking around in awe at the unfamiliar surroundings.
A yell caught their attention and Sonia reacted quickly, running in the direction it had come from with her guards close behind. FuwaMoco ended up giving chase closely too, while Shiori, Bijou and Nerissa started following before Shiori halted.
"Shiori? What's wrong?" Bijou asked.
"I think they're going this way," the Archivist said, following her ears as more commotion could be heard. "We might be able to cut them off!"
Nerissa and Bijou didn't hesitate to follow her, trusting Shiori's instincts even as they ran through the unfamiliar city. It wasn't long before Nerissa got ahead and, as they rounded a corner, she stuck out her tuning rod. A man ran into it, getting clotheslined and falling to the ground with a pained grunt.
"Hopefully that was the right person," Shiori chuckled.
It was quickly confirmed to be as Sonia, Shaun, Rayna and FuwaMoco arrived on the scene.
"Nice job," Sonia grinned at the Advent girls, before her expression changed completely and she looked at the man on the ground. Though, there was a moment of shock from her when she saw it. "Mother fu… Damien Black you bastard," she exclaimed to herself.
Shaun and Rayna grabbed him by the arms and lifted him up in front of the Queen. "What exactly was your plan here?" Sonia asked him.
He shook his head and glared at Sonia, before surprising us by overpowering the guards and chucking them to the ground, managing to kick Sonia down and dodge Nerissa's jab at him, grabbing her tuning rod and pulling her to the ground too. FuwaMoco both leapt at him, their claws managing to scratch him a little as they caught him off guard but he quickly ducked and rolled away, grabbing something off Sonia's belt.
Shiori and Bijou tried to shoot him, but he ignited the weapon he'd gotten from Sonia, a dark blade emitting from a rectangular hilt that was able to block the shots.
"This just got a lot more complicated," Bijou groaned.
Shiori was about to agree when another stun shot came from the left, hitting Damien squarely in the side and sending him to the ground, unconscious.
Shiori immediately looked to where the shot had come from and spotted a pale woman with long black hair and chalcanthite-blue eyes wearing a black trench coat and holding a blaster.
"Stella!" Sonia called with relief when she spotted the newcomer.
"Looks like we got back just in time," Stella smirked. "Though those Hololive and Holostar members made staying in the other world pretty tempting."
I just got déjà vu… Shiori thought, amused. Though just as the picture had earlier, Stella was taking all of Shiori's attention as she saw the look in those deep blue eyes. Moreso than her younger self in the photo, Shiori could tell that this woman had a lot of stories to tell. Years of pain and hardships hid behind those bright eyes.
Stella approached the group and helped Sonia up, giving her a brief hug before turning to the rest of the group.
Bijou was helping Nerissa up and both sets of twins were back on their feet, with Mococo growling at Damien's unconscious body.
"So you five must be Advent. Safe to say your co-workers were surprised to see six Sleeping Knights in your place," Stella noted. "Our twins are a little bit different to FuwaMoco, what with being a Prince and Princess in the Kingdom of Snow," she added with a laugh.
"I mean, Tarev's a King now, not a Prince, remember," Sonia reminded with a chuckle.
"Right, yeah, still not used to that," Stella giggled awkwardly. "Fortunately, Qeios works fast. You girls can go home before your fans even notice you were gone."
"Damn, that really was fast," Nerissa commented.
"When we were talking about interdimensional travel, I was thinking we were gonna be stuck here for multiple months at least," Shiori agreed, impressed with the efficiency of Sonia's people.
"So…I guess that means our time here is done?" Bijou wondered.
"Bau…" FuwaMoco whimpered, slightly sad.
"Hey, don't be down. I already told ya, didn't I? With our tech, you can go back and forth whenever you want, so this likely won't be the last you'll see of us," Sonia smiled warmly.
Shiori also smiled. "Good, I've got a lot of archiving to do here~!"
Sonia just laughed and rolled her eyes. "Someone's gotta take that role from Stella, she's not the best writer."
"Hey! I take offence to that," Stella glared jokingly, shoving Sonia away.
The Advent girls just laughed at the shenanigans, however unusual they may seem for people unfamiliar with Sonia and Stella's friendship. It was a complete reversal of expectations for Shiori from when she'd first found out about the two.
"Well… I guess it's time to go home," Nerissa said, looking at her companions.
"Before that, there's one thing I want to do," Shiori looked at Sonia with a grin. "Time to get this party started."
Well, there we go. …was it too obvious I was getting tired towards the end? Probably. Oh well, this wasn't anywhere near as thought out as my main stories, I just felt like doing it because it was a random silly idea I had. For those confused, basically this is Advent randomly ending up in the universe of my main story series. However, it is worth noting, this is based in the rewrite's timeline and not the existing one (The stories already uploaded have basically been pushed aside as drafts for the future rewritten versions I've already started on, so read them at your own risk because they are bad in their current forms lmao).
Anyway, apologies for the meh quality, wrote it in an evening without a lot of planning on where it was going, and I'm not as good with one-shot short-stories. (And might've been watching some streams while writing…hehe) Hopefully still a fun enough read though~
-Night Rose
2023