The question echoed across the empty, dead plains.

What?

It echoed even in Jack's mind as he looked at Zephia reborn, perplexed. Or rather - perplexed may not have been the right word - he was feeling like he was losing his mind. It was like looking at a shadow, or a broken reflection. He could remember seeing her body before him, splattered across the Elusian ground as if a giant golem had squashed her like a bug. And yet, there she stood, not a single wound on her, not even the one he had given her at the second battle of Lythos.

Zephia tilted her head to the side, concern etched in her expression. "Are you alright? You seem… tense. Or, maybe - maybe I should have chosen my words more carefully! You must be confused. It has been a few years."

"I'm… confused. Yeah, confused," Jack said, still holding the red Sword of the Creator in his hand. "Very, very confused. Confused as to why you're here. Why you're talking to me when I already killed you. If this is some kinda trick-"

"Killed me? What?" Zephia asked, looking down at her body, twirling around as if it would grant her a better view of herself. "I don't feel very dead. But why would you kill me? We're friends, aren't we? You said as much yourself!"

"I… did? Why'd I say that to the woman who murdered my sister?" Jack asked, his tone more questioning than accusatory as he slowly began to lower his sword. Something was off.

"M-murde-?" Zephia looked completely flabbergasted, as if Jack had told her the sun wasn't real, or that the moon was actually a giant cookie in the sky. "W-why would I do that? She was just as much my friend as you were! I would never-!"

"I…" Jack looked around, feeling as if he was close to figuring out what had happened, and with it, the outrage was beginning to die down. Every time he looked at 'Zephia' however, all he saw in his mind's eye was a broken and destroyed body. The image refused to leave his head.

Zephia shook her head, holding her hands onto the sides as she turned away. "This is worse than I thought. Perhaps… perhaps whatever power brought you here has altered you in some way? Do you know my name?"

"Zephia," Jack said instantly. "Your name is Zephia."

"Oh dear… no, that's not it. I suppose the first letter is right, and maybe the second - but no, my name is Zelestia, Jack. Does that name mean anything to you?"

"Not… particularly," Jack replied. Truthfully, there was something just at the edge of his memory, but it was just a name and nothing else; it was only vaguely familiar. "I get the feeling that I'm, uh, well, not the Jack you know. If that makes any sense."

"What? Why wouldn't you be? There can- Ah, I think I am beginning to understand," Zelestia said, taking a deep breath. "You are a different Jack, then. From somewhere else entirely."

"Well, that depends," Jack said, looking around. His gaze landed on the sun again, and its angry red light hurt his eyes. He squinted as he looked back at Zelestia. "Where are we?"

"Oh? Elyos. Specifically in the… the 'former' flower fields of Firene, to the southeast," Zelestia answered. "These fields were beautiful once…"

"Southeast?" Jack asked, shaking his head. "Firene is in the southwest where I come from."

"I… see," Zelestia said. "I believe we will have an easier time talking if we weren't out in the open. Much as this place used to be beautiful, I, er- well, it would be dangerous for us to stay out here. The Firenese Royal Family would not take kindly if someone like myself were found around here by one of their patrols."

Jack blinked. "Why not?"

"I will explain when we are away from here. Tell me, are you afraid of heights?" Zelestia asked, turning to her wyvern. "I have a camp set up further to the north, where we can talk further, and the quickest way is by air."

Jack swallowed the growing lump in his throat. Either Zelestia was just as skilled at manipulating people as her counterpart, or she really was telling the truth. Either way, Jack didn't have much choice. He was alone, parted from his weapons and usual Emblem - it would be suicide to take someone like her on if she had even a fraction of Zephia's power.

Finally, Jack shook his head. "Not anymore. Not since I got with Ivy. Let me just go grab my weapons really quick."

Zelestia raised a brow. "Not to use them against me, I hope!"

"Not unless you give me a reason to," Jack muttered under his breath, looking down at Byleth's ring on his finger.

The red sun began to set by the time Jack and Zelestia reached Zelestia's base camp. It wasn't much - it was built upon a simple rock outcropping near the border with Brodia. Or atleast, Jack assumed that the border was with Brodia. Considering Zelestia had said Firene was in the southeast in this strange mirror version of Elyos, who knew where the other four countries were. Jack only hoped that Lythos was still in the center.

Nothing eventful happened on the way to the base camp. Jack half-expected for Zelestia to turn around with that grin that Zephia sported before, but nothing happened. Jack was inclined to believe her, and that she wasn't the Zephia he knew, but he still had trouble looking her in the eye. Not that he had to worry about that much, what with her being in the front, but he knew it'd be a problem.

"Alright, let me just start a fire…" Zelestia said, snapping her fingers as a small flame shot from her fingers and at the pile of deadwood nearby. It burst into flame instantly as she took a seat on the only chair nearby. "Ah, finally. We shouldn't be interrupted here unless something terrible is about to happen, so we have all the time in the world!"

"Such as it is," Jack grumbled, looking up toward the sky. "Why's the sun red?"

Zelestia's lips pressed together as she looked away. "It has been that way since… ever since the Divine Dragon passed away."

Jack's eyes widened. He turned to Zelestia as if she had just confessed to murdering Natalie again. "What?"

"I take it such a thing did not happen in your world? You are fortunate. She was a bright light in the darkness, but now… even with Sombron's death, this world is all the darker for it," Zelestia continued, looking as if she was about to cry.

She?

Jack filed that thought for later as he rubbed his forehead, walking forward so he could look across the dried and decaying Firenese landscape. "Maybe not so dead anymore."

Zelestia tilted her head. "What do you mean? I cannot feel his presence anymore; he is gone."

"The Sombron from our world - he's here now, too. Our Divine Dragon as well, and the eldest of the four royal families. Maybe even a few others," Jack said, rubbing the back of his head. "I don't know where they are or if we even arrived at the same time. I just hope Ivy is alright."

"Sombron is returned, then. Or a version of him," Zelestia said, sighing.

"We had him on the ropes," Jack said. "He was going to die. My crossbow here mangled his arm, and he was facing six of us at once. He was going to die. It was going to be over, and we'd all get to go home. Then he…"

"Whatever it was your Sombron did, it brought you here," Zephia said, mouth set in a determined frown.

Jack nodded quietly.

"Then, on behalf of the country of Lythos," Zelestia intoned, standing up. "I offer you my aid in both destroying him and finding your missing allies. You have my word."

"I…" Jack was at a complete loss. He hadn't expected such words to come from someone who looked like Zephia, but he was beginning to really internalize that Zelestia, at least, was not his enemy. He rubbed his forehead as he turned around.

"Thank you," Jack said quietly. "I… is it bad that I don't wanna ask what happened to us in this world? Me and the other Outlanders, I mean. It doesn't sound like our fates were pleasant."

Zelestia shook her head, her eyes closing for a moment. "You would be correct. That final battle… I wasn't at the front, but even I could feel the terrible loss. You, the Divine Dragon, the other Outlanders… you all sacrificed yourselves to destroy Sombron. But even with that sacrifice, this world is wrong even now. It is as if killing Sombron made things worse."

Jack turned back to the dying fields under a red star and sighed. "Probably."

"...Not to change the subject, but I have heard you mention Princess Ivy a few times," Zelestia said, a small smile on her face. "I realize things are different in your world, so I shall not judge, but are you…?"

"Already prying into my personal life, huh?" Jack snorted. "Yeah, she's my… well, I think she's my girlfriend. If you understand what that means."

"Oh, I understand it very well. That's very interesting. In this world, you could hardly stand her," Zelestia said.

Jack narrowed his eyes. "Why? What was she like?"

"You shall see for yourself, in due time," Zelestia said, walking forward to stand beside Jack. "You will not be able to mistake her for your Ivy, unless you have questionable taste in this other world."

Jack snorted, crossing his arms. "Are you trying to insult me? Really? Right now? After everything?"

"Insult you? No. I'm merely pointing out the obvious!" Zelestia professed, and somehow, Jack felt like she was telling the truth. That made him sigh as he rubbed his forehead.

"Awesome," he said. "This day just keeps getting better and better. I just hope they're all okay, you know? If things're looking bad here, then something's up everywhere. You said Sombron's dead?"

"Yes. He is," Zelestia replied, "of course, there is always the chance that enough life force could be sacrificed to resurrect him, but I doubt any of the nations of Elyos have enough people to pull something like that off. It would be a tremendous undertaking, and even if they succeeded, he would be too weak to offer any real value, and all of your people would be dead. It would be a waste for a couple generations at least."

"Then something else has gotta be doing this," Jack replied.

He had an idea. The 'Enemy' as the Architect called it, the thing Jack saw within the white void that had absorbed him and the others. He remembered the way it felt as if the void was looking at him - and he remembered the spiders that had arrived at Brianna's beck and call back in the other Elyos. He had little doubt that whatever the Architect had been talking about was at least partly responsible.

Either that, or there were other players in the game.

"...Actually, going back to what we were talking about earlier," Jack said, shaking his head. "If I didn't get together with Ivy in this timeline, who did I get with?"

Zelestia looked at Jack blankly, enough to make Jack feel uncomfortable as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He had a feeling it would be an awkward - and conceited - question to ask, but he was curious. And it was definitely less depressing than anything else they had spoken of.

Finally, after what felt like a century, Zelestia spoke quietly.

"That is a more complicated question to answer than you can know, Jack."

Alear knew that wherever he ended up would be confusing, if he had ended up anywhere at all. He half-expected the white void that had engulfed him and the others to be their end, but that had not been the case. Although considering what he was looking at, it didn't seem to be far from reality.

"This is your grave," the black-haired woman said curtly, pointing at the gravestone before them. "I had expected it to be the last time I saw you, but I was sadly mistaken."

Alear bit back a response to that. The woman - Nel, she had introduced herself as - made it abundantly clear that she did not like him, and he had a feeling it had something to do with what his alternate self had done.

And that was where he was, and where the others had apparently ended up, too. An alternate version of Elyos, where his mother had died a thousand years prior, and he had taken up the mantle of Divine Dragon in her stead. And it was he who slayed Sombron at a terrible cost.

The Lythos of this alternate Elyos looked nothing like the vibrant and mystical island he had known from his own Elyos. The grass was dead, and the sky looked wrong, and that was discounting what the sun looked like. It was like looking at an open wound.

Something far more terrible than just my death happened here.

"Of course," Nel continued, "we will need your help to destroy this other Sombron you have unwittingly brought to our shores."

That was enough to make Alear snap, but thankfully, he was stopped when another person stood in front of him.

"He had no way of knowing, Nel," Nil said. He was slight compared to his sister, but there was an underlying strength that Alear could see clear as day. With that axe of his across his back, he had to have some kind of experience swinging it. "And besides, we were already praying for absolution anyway, weren't we? Think of this as our chance. We can finally put this all to rest!"

Nel's lips thinned as she nodded her head. "You're correct, my brother. Very well. Tomorrow morning we shall begin to unravel this mystery. It will take some time to collect the Emblem Bracelets - be prepared, Divine One."

And then Nel stalked off, as if she had just left the most terrible conversation of her entire life. Alear sighed, running a hand across his forehead to wipe away the sweat.

"What did I do here to make her so hostile to me?" Alear asked, looking to Nil who regarded the grave before them with a dispassionate gaze. "It couldn't have been good."

"Oh, it wasn't anything you did, per se," Nil said, turning to Alear with an awkward smile. "You're different, sure, but my sister… she's lost two of the most important people in the world to her. I was basically all she had left, and seeing you again… Gah, I really shouldn't be talking about this while she isn't here. I won't say any more!"

Alear held up a hand and chuckled awkwardly. "That's fine by me. I'm sure she'll tell me when she wants. If she ever wants. I won't pry."

"I think this'll be good for her in the end, though," Nil noted. "She needs this kind of closure."

Alear nodded, studying Nil for a second. Like he had thought before, he was thin, almost lanky, with shock white hair. At the top of his chest was enlaid a red stone - a dragonstone, Alear knew. It was how Nel had transformed earlier, and how Alear had figured out that she was a Fell Dragon.

Not that it mattered to him. He was one too, after all.

"How long has it been?" Alear asked, looking down at the grave. Wilted flowers covered it. "Since my… since my death I mean."

"About five years," Nil replied solemnly. "Five years of this, of the world looking… dead and done. It's like it just gave up after you died. Of course, the royals of each country haven't exactly done anything to help the mood."

Alear let out a breath. "From what I saw from that map, it's like they've all been switched from what I know. If my friends are any different here than they are elsewhere…"

"They very much are, Divine One. It's not only a different world, but a different war as well," Nil replied. "It was brutal. It sounds like you had an easier time of it, but not a battle went by in our world where we didn't have to say goodbye to a friend or a retainer. Our Jack could have told you more, but he's… well."

Alear nodded, his frown deepening. "Even him. I almost find that hard to believe."

"He fell in that final battle alongside you. He and the other Outlanders," Nil continued. "That's weighed hard on Nel, too. So, really, please don't blame her. She's really trying to help, it's just been so difficult, and what with you here, I'm surprised she's even found the strength to keep going."

"There's so much that's unknown," Alear said, looking down at Marth's ring sparkling on his finger.

"To you, and to all of us," Nil agreed.

"Not even that. The Emblem Bracelets - they are the exact same ones we found in our Elyos," Alear said, causing Nil to perk up. "I could remember their incantations just fine, but when we recovered the Bracelet of the Ancestor, it was like my mind couldn't… couldn't understand it. It was like holding a piece of the void. Something terrible has been done here, and it might not even be Sombron's fault this time."

Nil whispered his next words. "We still have no idea where he ended up."

"We'll find him," Alear said. "We'll find him and put an end to this. And the least we can do for helping us is help you restore this world, however we can."

Nil smiled. "You really are the Divine One."

"Once we find my friends, I swear to aid you however I can," Alear continued, bowing. "You have my word."

Ivy pulled her ragged cloak further against her body. Usually, her normal clothes would protect her from the chill, and even if she didn't have that, Elusians were naturally more accustomed to colder temperatures. She would survive a long while without heating enchantments. Yet, despite all that, the air of the Elusia she was currently in felt even colder - frighteningly so, even. It was like she was marching against a tide of ice.

The woman in front of her had similar problems, it seemed, as she mumbled under her breath before sighing as they reached what appeared to be a cave. They were toward the south of the alternate Elusia, near the border with Solm. Despite that, the weather wasn't any warmer, something Ivy wished would be the case. Nonetheless, despite her noble bearing, she would suffer a cave for now if it allowed her a moment of reprieve.

Not only was the air cold, but the mountains were like jagged gray teeth from some large, terrible beast. It was terrifying to look at. If this was what had happened to her Elusia, she would not be able to bear the shame.

My counterpart has much to answer for, assuming she still lives…

"Alright, this is it," the armored woman said, entering the cave and letting out a breath. It fogged up the air in front of her as Ivy shuddered. "I hate to say it, but this is the best I've been able to do. My name's Madeline, by the way."

Ivy nodded. "You look just like someone I am… acquainted with."

Madeline let out a small 'hmph'. "I exist in your world too, then. I can only hope that I'm not insufferable there."

"I… will not comment," Ivy replied. "This plan of yours, how will you go about springing it? I doubt this world's version of Ivy will find us here, but if she intends to do what you say she is, then I will stop her whatever the cost."

Madeline nodded, striking flint together near a pile of deadwood. "Good. We're going to need all the help we can get. It's not going to be easy, but once the others rendezvous with us, we'll have a clear shot at this. Between you and me, I have a feeling she's the reason everything's been going wrong. She was never the same after the death of the Divine One."

Ivy shivered upon hearing that sentence. "If it would be anything, then yes, it would be that. I am speaking from experience."

Madeline frowned. "It's probably not in the same way you think, but I suppose you're right. It's going to be an ugly battle, you know? You're probably going to fight against people you consider your friends, your allies - I know I have no right to ask this, but do you think you can do that?"

Ivy nodded grimly, letting the light of the fire reflect off her eyes as she sat down in front of Madeline.

"I will. I must."

Sombron had done it.

It wasn't the original plan. The original plan involved gathering the Emblem Rings, killing off his rebellious children, unlocking the gate on the Worlds of Steel, and pillaging his way through the multiverse looking for the Zero Emblem. Even if the chances were remote, he had to try. There was nothing else. This was all he was, and all he would ever be.

But things had not proceeded as planned.

What few live followers he had died in the final battle at Elusia Castle. His strength was never fully restored, and his arm had been mangled beyond repair. But he still intended to go forward. There were other ways, other powers he could rely on.

The sands of the alternate Solm stretched out before him. He limped forward, looking out over the sand dunes and winds, stained red by the sun in the sky. He hadn't an inkling as to what happened in this version of Elyos, but he didn't care. There was only one thing that was going to keep him going, and it was regaining his power and breaking out into other worlds.

And, of course, fulfilling his end of the bargain. The Outsider, the Enemy - whatever it was called, it would have its fill of destroyed worlds as he searched for the Zero Emblem. He knew better than to double cross the entity he had contacted. It would be much easier to fulfill his half of the bargain anyway. And besides, he felt as if it had gotten the bad end of the deal - after all, what were a few destroyed worlds in exchange for weapons that could level cities with a mere flick of the fingers? Even at his most powerful it would take days to destroy a world, and with the weapons from the Worlds of Steel, it would take mere hours.

Sombron perked up as he heard a whispery voice behind him. He turned to see a Corrupted, but not one of his, making its way toward him. Most of its body was gone, and the cyclopean mask they all had was missing, leaving only a gaping visage to stare at him. It had been burned by the desert sun, and the remnants of its body was caked in sand.

The only other difference other than the damage was that its eyes glowed green instead.

"You should not have come here," it said, its voice like gravel. It reminded him of his own, except darker - wiser, almost, if he had to give the feeling that settled in his chest a word. "Your life is forfeit now, fool."

Sombron lifted his good arm and blasted the Corrupted apart with Fell magic. It didn't so much as try to move out of the way, and as it faded away into nothingness, he thought he saw it smile.

It was just his imagination, though. It was gone within seconds, and Corrupted could not change their facial expressions. He had attempted it. Perhaps one of the more intact ones could, but that was not one of those.

Sombron shook his head, and prepared for the journey ahead.

Alright, this'll be the last chapter for a good long while. I've got something I wanna experiment with at the moment, and then after that there's Starfield. I think this is a decent place to leave off for a while. Been going pretty hard on this fic ever since it first came out so I think I'm due some down time lol.

It won't last forever, though. I'll see you guys soon, again!

Here's a link to our Discord server: discord. gg/u89gs745fn

See you guys next time!