Chapter Description: As the expedition into the Apartment continues, a familiar face to Daisy & Warrior is encountered…
Author's Notes:
This chapter is a crossover with croisvoix's fic Crowdsourced Conspiracy Board on AO3. Aika's perspective of these events can be read on AO3 here: /works/53877457/chapters/136370707. I highly recommend reading CCB! You may (or may not) end up seeing a couple of my characters there too in some capacity…
As for updates on my other stuff… Well nothing to speak of. It's all coming soon™
Chapter 6: Time for Another Existential Crisis!
With the duel done and dusted, the 3 Skyes (and Ren) had returned to their investigation. They were starting to see a couple repeat worlds on their door scans and even one they'd encountered people from (Earth-61823 to be exact). But the more data the quartet collected about the Apartment, the more questions that got raised. Is this place truly infinite in size? Who could have created such a place? And what was the objective? A place to relax? If so, then why have a colosseum? That last question was quickly answered by remembering that people like WoL & Phoenix exist.
As they turned the corner and began to scan another door, they saw a woman near one of the doors, seemingly inspecting the door before turning toward them to notice their presence. She was a woman, seemingly in her twenties, that was smoking a cigarette.
The woman released another puff of smoke and introduced herself.
"Aika Nakamura," the woman, Aika, said her name was.
Phoenix was the first to step forth and introduced herself, "Skye Mercer. Phantom Thief, exchange student at Shujin Academy & multiversal travel extraordinaire! You can call me by my codename Phoenix to differentiate me from them," she said, pointing to WoL & Daisy as she did so.
Once Phoenix wrapped up her introduction, a light bulb seemed to go off in both Daisy & WoL's minds at the same time.
"Wait a minute…" WoL Skye thought aloud.
"Don't we know someone named Aika? You know, from the group chat?" Daisy responded, clearly knowing who WoL Skye was thinking of.
"Um… which group chat are we talking about? Because I don't know of anyone named Aika that's part of the Phantom Thieves nor one that's working with us on multiversal protection like that Kotone woman is?" Phoenix asked.
"Oh, right! You and Ren don't remember anything from that group chat!" Daisy said.
"We're talking about the one with all the strange Velvet Room bullshit that keeps you and Ren from remembering anything about it when not looking at it," WoL Skye explained.
Ren's eyes went wide as he said, "Oh… you mean that one. The strange one."
"I am in the group chat. You're on the notes for unlikely to matter. Not to my situation. However doesn't mean I can't learn something. Multiple universes, why are they similar?" Aika said in response, presumably referring to all 4 of them, still smoking her seemingly endless cigarette as she did so.
Daisy took the lead on this one, "Depends on who you ask. If you were to ask the Destroyer of Worlds, it would be because fate only intended for there to be one universe and all the others are mistakes. That there are certain "Canon Events" that have to happen in all universes. But that's long been proven to be bullshit. I personally believe that there isn't a reason for the similarities. It's simply a coincidence within the grand, infinite expanse of the Multiverse… Oh, and I'm Daisy Johnson by the way. My username's quakeitoff in the group chat. Just so you can put a face to the name."
Aika sighed as she produced a pack of cigarettes, "No answer on why I'm the Wildcard instead. Understood. Smoke? I'd feed you all as thanks but I didn't bring take out," She asked as she offered the 4 a cigarette.
"Nope," Ren responded. He'd never smoked and he didn't plan on changing that.
"Screw it, why not? It's not as if my Centipede serum-induced healing factor won't undo any of the damage anyway," Daisy responded as she went to grab a cigarette from Aika.
"Worth a shot. These things seem pretty popular in some universes and I'd like to understand why," WoL Skye replied as she did the same.
"I'll pass. Thanks for the offer though," Phoenix replied after giving it some thought.
As Phoenix stepped away from Aika, the latter produced a lighter and offered it to WoL & Daisy. Both women moved their cigarettes toward the lighter's flame so that their cigarettes could be lit. Once both their cigs were lit, they put them into their mouths and began smoking.
"Take it slow. Or don't and choke," Aika added…
And WoL almost immediately began to cough incessantly after inhaling too much of her cig's smoke in one go.
"Ugh! Thal's Balls! What in the Seven Hells is this?! People do this willingly?" WoL Skye asked.
"Yes. Yes indeed we do, oh illustrious Warrior of Light," Daisy responded, smoking her cig much more casually as she did so.
"Question, do you know what I am in your worlds?" Aika asked, looking especially closely at Ren as she did so.
"Honestly, I've never met a woman who looks or sounds like you or bears the name "Aika Nakamura" before. So I have no way of knowing who you are in Phoenix & I's universe. I'm Ren Amamiya by the way. Leader of the Phantom Thieves in Phoenix & I's universe," Ren responded.
"Aika Nakamura was the name of a HYDRA turncoat working for Garrett who died during our raid on his complex in Cuba. Honestly, Coulson did my universe's version of you a favor by killing you. If it wasn't by a bullet to the head from Coulson, it would have been by Garrett himself after he went psycho from the GH-325 injection," Daisy answered.
Aika did NOT take Daisy's answer well if the long drag of her cigarette, long stare at Daisy & gritted teeth were any indication. It was hard for any of them to blame her. No one likes hearing about how they die in another universe. Thus, Daisy decided it was probably best to keep the fact that HYDRA (especially the part of HYDRA Garrett was part of) derived from Nazi Germany to herself...
"It took me a bit to recall, but I do remember a Doman Resistance fighter named Aika Nakamura that I fought alongside during that country's liberation that resembles you. Honestly, I thought the shared name was mere coincidence when you joined the group chat, but now there's no mistaking it… You two are all but certainly variants of each other!" WoL responded, hoping this information would provide some comfort to Aika.
"Nothing complete about me. Good to know." Aika replied as she let her cigarette linger near her lips. "I'm leaving if you don't need anything. Need to find more information."
"There is one thing we need from you before you go. The 4 of us are all here as part of an expedition to learn more about this place. That's why we're scanning all these doors. If you don't mind, could we also scan you to know what world you're from?" WoL Skye asked her carefully as she prepared the scanner.
Aika simply shrugged in response, her cig bouncing a bit as she did so.
WoL took that as a yes and held the scanner up to Aika and began scanning her. The result came up with Earth-9821.
"Earth-9821, huh? Interesting… We've actually seen that reality number on some of the doors we've scanned. I suspect we'll see it again on this one you came through…" WoL Skye said as she took the scanner to the door beside Aika. After a quick moment the scanner result did indeed also come up with Earth-9821.
"Wow! Aika, you're the first person we've encountered in this Apartment who's world we've already scanned doors to before we've met someone from the universe in question! Thank you SO MUCH for your help! This will be invaluable in our efforts to understand this place," WoL Skye exclaimed.
"Good. Going now," Aika responded as she took another drag on her cigarette and pulled out a key and the door they just scanned pulled Aika into it as she put the key into the deadbolt on the door. As the door opened, they saw what seemed to be a small Japanese town on the other side. The 4 didn't get a chance to glean much more than that as Aika retrieved her key and closed the door.
"OH, THAT'S JUST CHEATING!" Ren exclaimed as the door closed.
"You do remember that we have watches that can pull us out of here at anytime right?" Phoenix asked Ren.
"I know, but she just casually opened a door with a key to get back!" Ren responded.
"Whatever. We're moving on, you two!" Daisy said to put an end to their bickering before it could start.
And with that, the expedition continued once more…