Ethrys is a beautiful planet full of still undiscovered mysteries and marvels that'll shock even the most experienced of adventurers, until recently it was also a land of strife that fell into a war set to be the last for one reason or another. Thanks to the efforts of The Scions of The Seventh Dawn and all of Ethrys uniting as one they were able to end such senseless violence as well as the end of the world itself. Now this wouldn't be possible without the help of one person in particular: The Warrior of Light.
Now that same person was missing due to an experiment regarding a stray rift to another Reflection, thankfully nothing world ending had started… Yet, now it was just a matter of establishing communications with said Excitable Adventurer and a stable method of travel to and from said Reflection.
And that's where one Y'shtola Rhul found themselves now, pouring over a veritable amount of books and research done in regards to this very topic, as well as consulting the greatest minds of her time and trusted friends alike. She had already spent countless hours analyzing the unusual rift trying to decipher its mysteries, thankfully she wasn't that worried about her friend, Cassandra had a penchant for surviving and thriving in the oddest situations, her adventures with a certain inspector come to mind. For the longest time Y'shtola and the rest of the Scions thought those tales were merely exaggerations by their dear friend for the sake of levity and telling a fun tale.
They had no idea how wrong they were until they finally met The Mandervillian Inspector and his posse, much like Cassandra had described, it seemed like whenever present the laws of reality would go out the metaphorical window. From somehow crossing to the First by accident to encountering not only an alien species but a Primal that flew under the Scions's radar, they were a magnet for all kinds of they haven't discovered that Cassandra went missing, if they did untold chaos would be brought to the delicate operation that is handling Rifts to other Reflections.
The only ones in the know now are The Scions of the Seventh Dawn, Cid and the rest of Ironworks, the Loporrits and key political figures they were acquainted with such as Wuk Lamat, Aymeric and some members of the Doma court. Speaking of the people of Iron Works and their new Leporine friends, they were currently using a series of monitors and Magitech from both the Ark and ones made from their own making with the help of Solution Nine tech to analyze the spot where the Rift was previously located and force an opening to the other Reflection.
A whole day has passed since their friend's sudden disappearance, a day full of discussion on what's the best next step to take and how will they go about the rescue attempt once they are able to open up the Rift to the other side, after Cid and Nero got into another one of their hour long arguments about if they should utilize the Omega unit (who was currently in it's miniature form floating alongside a small chocobo named Alpha, for some reason it looked like the machine was staring at Rift hungerly, it bothered Y'shtola to no end). One of the Loporrits started to speak, Y'shtola thought it to be Mappingway, but she wasn't sure.
"This calls for the help of someone most knowledgeable regarding these matters, perhaps we should pay a visit to The Watcher in Mare Lamentorum, there must be something we can gleam from his library or ev-" she was suddenly interrupted as a ball of light materialized in front of all of them, drawing their attention towards a most peculiar figure. A certain fae queen appeared in all her tiny glory, Y'shtola sighed, "At least now we might have some good news, or incredibly drawn out ones" she exasperated as the Feo Ul made herself known to all and began her exposition.
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Well that was one less thing to worry about, apparently the Reflection their dear friend landed on wasn't some deserted hellscape full of unimaginable horrors, but a school, an actual school for Adventurers to learn and grow as combatants and people. Only Cassandra could be so lucky as to enter an unknown Reflection and get a teaching gig out of it, thankfully she was safe and sound, even better news was the confirmation of the placement of the Aether Crystal in an area with good enough flow. That means they'll soon be able to effectively communicate with her and establish a strong link for eventual travel through the rift, from what the new Titania told them the Aether Flow is getting stronger by the second in those parts.
Feo Ul vanished as soon as she appeared, her message delivered and her duty completed, leaving a group of Y'shtola, Iron Works members and Loporrits began working once again of the fact that they had an anchor to work off. Y'shtola wished the other Scions were here to assist in these matters, but they haven't been able to immediately rid themselves of their affairs and come towards Thanalan to assist in their friend's retrieval.
Maybe they were finally having some good luck here, if things kept up like this then maybe Cassandra will be back by the end of the week, and maybe just maybe she'll be able to stay more than a week without ending up as some sort of shenanigan. Y'shtola knew it was a longshot but by Hydaelyn she would hope so.
Just when things were starting to look up, a tragedy more terrible than any other happened, two figures appeared silently and seemingly instantaneously, the worst ever combination of people to get involved… Inspector Hildibrand Manderville and his assistant Nashu Mhakaracca.. There they were standing next to the Omega Unit and posing, the muscular highlander wearing his now iconic suit that barely contained his bulging muscles (all of them used only for posing, never violence, she remembers Cassandra telling them once) as he struck a most gentlemanly pose as his assistant did her best imitation of a cute cat pose, as to contrast her muscular but just as stupid peer.
"Fear not friends! For my dear assistant and I are on the case, our most magnanimous acquaintance has found herself in quite the predicament and it is my duty as a Manderville man and her number one idol to bring her back!" proclaimed the Gentleman of Light while striking his iconic pose, teeth glistening in the light and smirk ever present on his handsome face, Nashu looked similarly confident in her cutesy pose.
"The inspector is right, we'll totally get Cassandra back by lunch time! Ooh, maybe we could have one of those meals she brought from that Tural place?" Nashu explained as she thought about all the delicious goodies that she was going to have once her bestie was back from her impromptu trip. Y'shtola and everyone with half a functioning brain was loathing this, it felt like they were slowly getting drawn into their orbit, she had to get them out of here before they did something stupid.
"Okay you two, time to get going, we're working with some very sensitive equipment here and we don't need the two of you making a ruckus" approached Cid as he made to shush the two nuisances away before they got any ideas, but before he could physically move them the two idiots were already making their way towards Omega. Who for his part just kept staring at the empty space around the rift, that is until Hildibrand and Nashu got near it.
"My Inspector sensibilities are telling me this little metal fellow here could be the key to finding out where our most sensible friend went to. Hello there my good metal sir, perchance you could help us in our endeavor, I would be willing to make you an honorary gentleman inspector for the sake of our search." The son of house Manderville spoke as he picked up Omega in his miniature form, the mechanical pal began to release an ungodly sound as his body shone with an incandescent light. All of the sudden the Omega unit and the undynamic duo disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving only a trail of dust where they previously were.
Silence reigned among the people there, no one dared to speak as no words sounded powerful enough to react to such a idiotic and unbelievable experience, that is until Biggs and Wedge decided to break the silence.
"Well… that ain't good." was all the two could muster, but no one blamed for their simple and succinct words, for they describe what they all were thinking. One Y'shotla Rhul could only sigh and make preparations to get the other Scions here as soon as possible.
AN: A short interlude before the next chapter, it looks like our favorite inspector wil be going to Remnant, even if it was by complete accident. As for how long he'll take to get there? Who knows, Hildibrand was never one for predicatbility, but knowing him it'll be when he's most needed. It's always nice to right about other FF characters, even if I'm not totally sure I'm able to capture all that makes them as special as they are with my monkey brain. But I'll always do my best that I can assure you off, as for feedback and such I saw a review made by Sheild of Brotherhood in regards to possible story beats, those are good suggestions and we'll see... especially since I don't think my fic will ever get as serious as some of the other works on here, mainly due to my love of siliness in the face of danger and also wanting to explore other possibilities for interactions and the general story.
Thanks for all the feedback, I'll eventually get to spacing the previous chapters and their paragraphs as well as continuing writing the next one.
Like always reviews and offers for doing betas are always appreciated, take care!