Crossover Together ~クロスオーバ 一緒に~

Well, heading off to the location had been a fairly easy task. Nagisa, Twilight, Edward, and Winry continued off on their way to the north, guided by Alex Armstrong in their carriage. They were joined by Alex's close lieutenants. Considering who they were going up to face, it was a bit of a precarious means of transport, but it was still a silent way to find the great Tengu, wherever he was. The four were taking their time and were chilling out inside the carriage, and they were basically bored at this point. Sure they were flying pretty fast, but just how far was the Great Tengu anyway? Still, at this point the land had changed up a bit from Tokyo City to more mountainous terrain to the north.

"Hokkaido. You sure this is the right way, Armstrong?" asked Nagisa, who was looking out from the carriage at the terrain.

"The reports say the Great Tengu lives in the mountains, so we have to be close. Maria Ross, Denny Brosh, get ready when we land," Alex instructed, keeping the carriage steady as they went. Nagisa sat back down inside. Those names were to the two lieutenants that went with them.

"Well?" asked Ed.

"I have no idea," Nagisa sighed. Edward was getting a little bit edgy about it, wanting some sort of action to start at some point. He liked relaxation as much as the next guy, but really it was taking so long just to find this one Tengu.

"It can't take that much longer," said one of the lieutenants. The male lieutenant then looked over to Nagisa.

"Oh, hey Nagisa? I hope you don't mind me asking, but what happened to you after Pluton? We were told you disappeared after that?" Denny asked. Nagisa felt a little shiver run through him on that, but he felt good enough to at least answer him. Guess this would be the thing they will be chatting about aside from Jizo.

"Eh, it's kinda confusing. One moment I was in Synapse, and the next I was in some forest. That Miracle Sword saved me," Nagisa summed up. He would go on with the full story, but they didn't have too much time for it.

"You mean you teleported? I didn't think humans could do that."

"Give us enough time and we can do anything. I mean, we didn't have your holy power, yet we've been taking down demons left and right, so I think we got it," Ed said, showing his mechanical arm in a flex.

"Good point. I mean, you are an alchemist, you and Yugure. And Nagisa, you got a halo blade and are light on your feet. If you ask me, the Great Tengu's going to be a bit surprised when he sees you all," Maria stated. Ed felt his confidence rise on him again as he smile smugly, but Nagisa and Twilight saw her point there. Most demons don't see humans as very much, so perhaps they'll give this Great Tengu a run for its money.

"By the way, how strong is the Great Tengu? Tiger Class doesn't sound as dangerous as other demons," Twilight noted. She had found this out as they were reading the demon guide and it's ranks, and Tiger class was a bit down there really when compared to other demons they've faced (Pluton and Sombra in particular)

"Beats me, I never met the Tengu before," shrugged Denny.

"Me neither. But let's watch out anyway," Maria suggested.

"She's right. Ed, I want you to be careful out there," Winry then said, a hand on his shoulder.

"Come on, Winry, I'll be fine. What do you take me for?" Ed asked. however, Winry's mind wasn't exactly on him, specifically ...

"Because I'm not going to be happy if you come back to me with my automail wrecked. You wouldn't do that, would you?" she then stated, sounding a lot more menacing than any of them expected. Ed moved so Nagisa was in between him and Winry.

"Eh, yeah, sure thing," Ed said.

"Now I can see Olivier's side to Winry," Nagisa thought. A decent mixture, he had to say, but for Ed's sake he just hoped it didn't have to come to that. Ed didn't want to know just how much of Olivier was in Winry though, so, he just left it at that.

"Don't worry, Ed, it'll be fine. Who knows, maybe this Great Tengu won't be too much trouble after all," Twilight reassured him, beginning to move the curtains to look out the window again. They had nothing else to do on the way there. Twilight could see a number of snow clouds, but not too much on the land underneath them. No, it didn't really say how far they were from the spot, and who knows how much longer it'll be? However, turned out, Alex began to descend the carriage through the clouds.

"We landing, Alex?"

"Just about," Alex replied.

That was all the news they needed to hear as they descended down from the clouds into the terrain of the region. As they kept saying, the area turned into more mountainous region. The group stayed inside the carriage as they descended down until they felt the carriage stop itself upon landing.

"Ok, suit up everyone, we're here," said Denny, giving everyone some winter clothes to keep them warn on this mission, something they packed with them before they went. I mean, they would suit up to go into the mountains anyway, it only made sense. So after getting some winter coats on, they went off outside to see where they were.
The exact area was higher up in the mountainous region, patches of forest here and there covered in snow. Speaking of, snow was coming down in a good flurry around them. It didn't take them too long until they all were out of the carriage. Now outside, they got a full view of the place, and it basically was isolated from many a settlement. It was probably for the best though, as this demon could cause a ton of trouble if it did end up finding other people up here. However, that didn't mean that they were completely in the wild, as when they looked up the mountain, they could just make out some sort of shrine. Bit odd for where they were, but it was just proof that something was here. They couldn't see much of it, but Nagisa felt the shiver run through him.

"We're at the right spot. Ok, is everyone ready?" Nagisa asked.

"We're all ready, just say the word," Twilight said.

Well, time to get this started, one way or another. With the word all ready to go, the group started to head up the path leading to the shrine. Nagisa could sense the demonic presence here more with each step towards the shrine, as if it was coming from the shrine itself.

"There's a lot of energy coming from up there. Whoever the Great Tengu is must be a powerful demon ... I hope we can handle him," Nagisa thought. He looked back to the others for a moment as they went, seeing Twilight and Ed first.

"... No, don't start thinking like that again. We got this," Nagisa then thought. He wasn't going to try and throw himself to the beast again like before, and he needed to believe in his friends as much as himself, not to mention the angels following behind them.
Eventually, they managed to get to the main area in question. This place looked similar to the area back in Tokyo, but instead the Hokkaido shrine looked simply torn apart! Clearly something ended up going wrong here. The only area that hadn't been touch was the shrine itself, but the other buildings around the area looked ripped up, with boards pulled out, walls torn to pieces, and simply looking like it had been wrecked for who knows how long. One of the buildings actually had the roof caved in. Nagisa had a bit of a mixture on this place: such a good spiritual place, and he felt such a demonic presence.

"Alright, fan out the area, the Great Tengu could be anywhere -"

"He's over there," Nagisa suddenly said, aiming his halo blade off a ways from the entrance. The direction was actually over by one of the wrecked buildings rather than the untouched shrine.

"That didn't take long," said Danny.

"He does have his demon sense," replied Twilight, Nagisa getting ready to fight whatever was in there.

"Tengu, come out! This is the Elysium guard!" Alex called, just as ready to apprehend the demon whoever it was. At first, some silence was left in the air but eventually a voice did start to speak.

"The Elysium guard? Well, I never would've thought I'd be that high in ranking to have you called. A stain in my feathers that name."

Then the figure began to move out from the building, and out onto the porch to see them. It started out slow, until the dim light of the winter air presented itself to the demonic entity. for a start, saying this demon was human may not be the right word, looking more like some bird than a human. A set of large talons, each claw as large as their hand, scrapped the ground underneath him as he moved into the light. The first, and most prominent feature that got their attention was the face: a gigantic face, pure red, and a gigantic nose jutting forward as long as Nagisa's arm. An angry expression edged the giant face, starring them all down. A old samurai robe covered the body, and once he stopped moving, the Great Tengu spread out its mighty wings, edged with grey and green feathers. This was the mighty Great Tengu they were here to find.
And by the sound of him, he was hoping they would show up.

"So, you're the Great Tengu," Edward figured.

"In the flesh. Though, I didn't think it was bring your child to work day. What're you thinking doing that?" The Great Tengu questioned.

"Watch your mouth, demon, that Team Harmony you're talking to!" shouted Denny. The Great Tengu took another look to the others, though the face stayed angry he was actually rather intrigued about it. In a single flap of his wings, he was suddenly right in front of Nagisa, right in the face. Almost instinctively, Nagisa jumped back in a few steps, throwing his Halo Blade right at him. However, the blade not only didn't do damage, it didn't even cut! It just bounced off the face, and landed on the ground nearby. That either proved that this wasn't the actual face, or this was a far deadlier demon than he thought.

"Team Harmony? You mean you little humans were the ones who defeated Pluton?"

"WHO'RE YOU CALLING LITTLE?!" shouted Ed, ticked off on the very word (as usual). The Lieutenants got in the way of the Great Tengu, but the demon raised a wing and readied to swat them aside, just for the wing to be held back by Twilight's magic, coated in a purple hue.

"Just come quietly, we don't want any trouble," Twilight said. The Great Tengu shook his wing a bit until he got it free.

"You're hopeful. But I'm not going with you that easily. But tell you what, I'll cut you a deal: if I win, whoever's left get lost. If you win, then I'll come along quietly," The Great Tengu offered, though by the sound of it, he thought that he would win fairly easily by a good mile.

"Be ready to come with us then, because we're not letting off easy," Ed asked, still fuming about the comment from earlier. The Great Tengu then began to take flight, the wings kicking up snow around them. Guess they were in for a fight after all.

"Be warned: I've trained year after year to get to where I am. You've all may have lady luck, but it'll take more than her to take a demon like me down," The Great Tengu said. It wasn't like they were expecting no fight though, and they all were ready as they'll ever be.

"What're you waiting for then, BRING IT ON!" Ed yelled.

And bring it on he did. The first move was actually given to the group, Edward using his Alchemy to turn his arm into a huge, threatening sword. The Great Tengu took off out of reach from Ed, and flapped his wings to cause the snow to fly up too, making some blinding cover for him to make his move. This didn't work on everyone though, and Nagisa flew out of the snow, grabbing the Great Tengu by the face. Nagisa tried again to get his knife in, but his blade wasn't doing any damage to the Great Tengu in the slightest, and the demon spun in circles to get Nagisa off of him. Twilight got her magic to work again, and used it to give Nagisa a softer landing.

"He's tougher than he looks, this Halo Blade's not doing anything," Nagisa informed, getting worried.

"He's got some nerve to challenge the Armstrong line!" Alex said, his own alchemy starting to come to life. and just in time, as The Great Tengu began to bring his own attacks to the table: icicles starting to conjure up and launching down at them. They started to move aside to avoid getting skewered, but Alex Armstrong gave a power-filled punch, blue sparks flashing as the icicle was launched off to another building, breaking down a wall. The Great Tengu flew right for Alex, more ice forming in front of it like a wall. All Alex did was slam his fist into it, but that again launched the attack to the building.

"Unexpected."

"What the heck are you doing?! you're making it worse!" Ed shouted. Before Alex could get another word in, the Tengu targeted Twilight out of the group and flew right for her. Nagisa was ready to rush in, but Twilight got a magical shield up to reflect his oncoming icicle attacks. Nagisa saw that he was behind the Great Tengu, and saw his chance for a good hit. He and Ed worked together on this part, and they both raced up and stabbed the Great Tengu in the back! The demon cringed on the stinging pain, blood splattering out, but he swiftly spun around and swatted them off.

"Sneaky, but it won't work on This Tengu!" The Great Tengu said. He then started to focus more energy, until the Halo Blade popped out of his back, landing further away.

"Yugure, you ok?" called Ed.

"I'm fine," Twilight replied, but just one call was enough for the Great Tengu to dive-bomb him, the talons grabbing him by the mechanical arm, and lifting him skyward! Nagisa grabbed the leg, and gave it a good stab, but the Great Tengu wasn't giving in no matter how much his leg bled.

"Damn it, let go of me!" Edward demanded.

"Stop poking me with your tiny stick, human," The Great Tengu said, starting to do a tailspin to shake off Nagisa, and wreck the mechanical arm at the same time. A few good spins, mixed with the sharp talons, tore off Ed's arm with relative ease, and both Ed and Nagisa fell to the ground, shaken but not cut.

"Not a good idea to bring a spoon to a blade fight, boy," the Great Tengu hissed, dropping what remained of the arm onto the ground in a heap. Edward was getting very ticked off now, but he couldn't work his alchemy correctly with one arm, and Maria and Denny tried to keep him back from the fight. Winry tried to help him stay back too, but ...

"Seriously boy, you might as well take this scrapmetal and go make some fancy tin cans out of it. Whoever made that for ya doesn't know a wrench from a walnut."

Now Winry looked ready to kill. Mad enough that her automail was wrecked, now he's talking crap about it. However, a magic blast was suddenly hit on the Great Tengu's wing, making him spin around and land on his side. Twilight and Nagisa were taking the chance here, and the hit did some good damage to the Great Tengu. Alex Armstrong activated his alchemy again, the ground starting to tremble under the Great Tengu's feet. He quickly took flight just before the ground could crush him. His wing may be damaged but he could still fly, and he had more tricks up his sleeve.

"You wanna fight rough, do ya? Let's see how you handle this," The Great Tengu stated. Something else began to happen as the demon was up in the air. The huge face on the demon started to actually break off in one clean sweep, a completely new figure now replacing the face. Turned out that face was a shield, and the Great Tengu actually looked like a red human being underneath the body shield. He had a set of human arms, one of which was holding the shield, as the other grabbed the nose and pulled it out to show another weapon. The nose part was the holder, and the energy busted out into a light saber-like sword! The real face looked more human, but still blood red and with a fairly large nose. He dropped down, as he looked ready to fight. They all looked to the demon, and the Great Tengu started to rush in. Edward Elric was in front of the crowd, and while he had one arm missing, he was still ready to fight.

A-Al, you ... you okay?

He hesitated, and the Great Tengu sent him flying! One mighty hit from the Great Tengu launched him into the shrine, knocking the wind out of him immediately.

"ED!" Nagisa and Twilight gasped, rushing right over to him straight away. The Great Tengu watched them rush to his aid with a sort of intrigue on his face. Nagisa may have been hit with plenty of hits, but he didn't even prepare himself for that kind of hit.

"Elric, you alright? Say something," said Maria urgently. Edward didn't know what happened there, but the Great Tengu knew exactly where this was going, and began to walk away.

"You all know where the exit is, don't let the door hit you on the way out."

"We're not done with you!" Nagisa shouted, rushing at him. However, all it took was a few good flaps of his wings to cloud them in snow, and disappear into the distance. The Great Tengu was gone from the shrine, and now they had a knocked out Edward to deal with.

~~

Well, they thought it was going to be a fairly easier approach, but the end result was a bit disappointing. The Great Tengu basically flown the coop on them, and not only did Ed have his arm destroyed, but the hit the Great Tengu left him, seemingly, weak. The squad went back to base of the carriage (only spot of shelter from the winter storm, by the by). ...

"It's not that bad, Winry," insisted Ed.

"N-Not that bad? Do you see what happened to my creation? I-It's completely destroyed," Winry stated meekly, the remains of her creation in her trembling hands as she looked in dismay. Ed didn't feel too bad about that though.

"Come on Winry, it's the same thing just in smaller pieces."

That response just got Edward a wrench to the forehead. Winry was in no mood right now for those kinds of comments, especially if it involved her automail.

"The hell was that for?!" Ed yelled.

"My joke tolerance is pretty low right now, Edward Elric!" yelled Winry.

"Like I meant to have my arm destroyed!"

"Well you should've watched it out there, you would've still had your arm!"

"At least I did something, I didn't see you do anything!"

Twilight and Nagisa weren't enjoying their bickering anymore than the others were.

"Eh, we're really sorry. She's really likes her automail," said Maria.

"I see. Winry, Edward, will you two calm down?" Twilight asked. Both figures glared at Twilight with a death stare, making Twilight shiver. However, before they could continue the hit he took earlier started to sting again, and Edward cringed on the pain.

"Damn it."

"Ed, sit back down. No offense, but you took a bit of a hit back there, you shouldn't be getting all worked up," Nagisa said, helping him calm down.

"I can take a wrench!"

"Ed, you know that's not what he meant," Twilight corrected, reminding Edward of the trouble earlier. Edward just gave a rough sigh, but that did remind him of that little ... well, he wasn't sure exactly what it was. A vision, maybe? Well, whatever he would call it, somehow it kept in his mind and he just couldn't shake it off.

"What happened back there, Ed? He didn't hurt you too bad, did he?" asked Denny. A question on everyone's mind. Ed brought his good hand to his forehead.

"I don't know, something just ... I dunno, clicked."

"Something ... "clicked"?" Winry asked, confused.

"I don't know. I need some air," Ed sighed, getting up and starting to head out of the carriage. Clearly something was on his mind and the others could see that, and it wasn't just the physical fight itself either.
Ed didn't go too far from the Carriage. In fact, he just sat down over right by the side of it. The weather was still cold, but at this point the snow had calmed down, which was probably a good thing for the situation. Nagisa followed him outside, looking a bit concerned.

"I told you I don't know what happened."

"But it is something with the Great Tengu, right?" Nagisa asked, sitting down next to him.

"Look, I don't know what exactly happened ok? He was rushing at me, something ... happened, and next thing I knew, I was on the ground in that shrine," Ed said. Troublign as it is, Nagisa was getting curious over this other something.

"Something happened ... Ed, I know this sounds odd, but, did this something ... show you anything?" Nagisa asked. Ed looked a little surprised, but in the end he nodded his head.

"Apparently, I saw me and my brother as kids in a wreck of some kind."

"A wreck? What wreck?"

"You tell me, I never saw it before," Ed replied, getting a little annoyed with him prying in. Nagisa started to think a little hard on what this could be, but he was drawing a blank here.

"Clearly Edward got a vision of some kind. Is that a future vision? No, why would he be a kid again. ... Unless ..."

Then a crazy idea struck him.

"Seriously, what's that Tengu's deal? I never got any vision before, that's usually your department," Ed said. At this point, Nagisa got up to his feet, which caught his attention.

"How about we find out?"

.......

Short time later, Nagisa and Ed went off back up to the shrine. It was a bit later by the time they got there, but that wasn't exactly the main issue here. Something was up between the Great Tengu and Edward Elric, and Nagisa wanted to help Ed out with that. When they got there, the two were alone, and Nagisa kept quiet, focusing his demon sense again. It wasn't as strong as it was when they arrived, but it was indeed a presence somewhere here.

"Alright, where is he?" Ed wondered. Apparently, not a thing was around, and the place still had some evidence of their last fight earlier.

"He's around here somewhere. come on, let's look around," Nagisa insisted, taking a few steps in before.

"HA!"

A loud cry and an impact got their attention rather quick, even seeing something getting launched into the air. It wasn't another person, but instead a practice dummy. Nagisa and Ed quietly went over to the building in question, peeking out just behind the building and saw that their Great Tengu was in the tail end of some practice. The whole area looked actually roasted up, evidence of some fire attacks being used here. The snow landing on scorched ground simply proved that more than most. The demon didn't notice either one of them yet, though that was probably a good thing. He wasn't with his mask this time, and after some training there, he took a break and wiped some sweat from his forehead.

"I need a drink," he said, going over and heading inside one of the buildings, in particular the one they were peeking over from. Ed and Nagisa waited until he was out of sight before slowly moving to the back door to see what he was up to. Looking in, some candles were set up for some good lighting and, it turned out, this demon was a bit of a drinker: taking a moment to chug down on some sake inside the building.

"... Tengu?"

The Great Tengu paused for a moment, wiping off some saliva from his lips as Nagisa and Ed actually came up to confront the demon. He licked his lips of what sake was on his lips, and looking to them.

"Look who decides to come by and see the G.T. again. come for round two?"

"We came to talk to you," Nagisa made clear, though the Great Tengu could see that Nagisa was trying to keep himself together. He may be more used to his demon sense, but Nagisa still got the effects from it all, and he had little clue about what this demon could do. The Great Tengu wasn't really intimidated at all, and in fact extended a hand over in front of him.

"There's two spots here, why don't you two take a load off then? You got me in a good mood," said the Great Tengu, chugging some more sake. While a bit unsure about it, eventually both of them did take a seat in front of this demon. A bit of an odd situation, but if it could explain a thing or two, then fine.

"So, where's the rest of those birds in that holy flock of yours? They ditch you here, or what?"

"They're still down the path so don't get too comfortable," warned Ed.

"Yeah yeah, sure. So, what's with you two?" The Great Tengu asked, setting the sake down by his side.

"We ... we'd like to get to know you a little bit. That ok?" Nagisa asked. The Great Tengu smirked.

"Wanting to know the Great Tengu, eh? Well let's see now: I've been training for years since I ended up dead in these mountains for a start, and I've been working up my ranks as a demon to get that dragon class. How's that for a start?"

Honestly, Nagisa and Ed weren't sure what to say. Not that it was surprising itself, but the fact that the Great Tengu just started saying it without any trouble. Then again, that could be the sake talking.

"Well, neat. Uh, a little more specific though -"

"AH! Let me take a guess, you got something lingering in your head about me and your friend, am I right?"

"How the hell did you know that?" Ed asked.

"Oh, this demon's been wondering about a little somethin too."

"What was that?" Ed growled, sensing what this "small somethin" was. If he meant to or not, it wasn't too much off of his nose.

"What're you talking about?" Nagisa asked. The demon tried to get the exact memory out right, but apparently it was a vague one and it didn't come to him right away. Eventually, the Great Tengu got up to his feet.

"Eh, give me a five, I need to get my mind together," The Great Tengu said, strolling away from them for a brief moment.

"... This is weird," Ed quietly said.

"At least he's honest ... I guess," Nagisa quietly added. Yeah, it was odd as heck, but on the bright side, the Great Tengu wasn't going to try and kill them straight away. The Great Tengu eventually got himself back, but there was something in his hand, and it was ... rather mundane, actually.

"K, you nuggets, you all want to figure me out, well why don't you feast your eyes on this? Get turning those pages," The Great Tengu said, tossing the paper over to them. It was Nagisa who caught the thing, and they both took a moment to look it over. Once again, nothing too out of the ordinary with this, as it looked mainly like just some newspaper on a rather late date, years ago in fact. Both weren't sure exactly what he was getting at, but before they could actually figure anything out, the Great Tengu began walking off outside with the giant mask, opening his wings, and with a powerful flap, disappeared into the night. The launched made tons of snow splash them, and the candles blow out. Well, they were alone again, and this time they got some sort of clue to it all, and what was going on with Ed and this thing he saw.

~~

"So you tried talking to him and he gave you a newspaper," recapped Twilight. Nagisa and Edward didn't take very long to get back to carriage, and explain what had happened to them. Basically, there leaves a lot to be desired, and they weren't any closer as far as they knew.

"Yeah, I don't know. I'm still trying to figure it out myself," Nagisa replied, showing the paper to the girls, Twilight in particular. On the surface, this paper just wasn't giving them too much. It showed the date being years ago, so it shouldn't be anything particularly recent. That, and most of the news on said paper was more concerning a new locomotive train more than anything.

New hybrid train revolutionizes railway

The main headline gave no clue to anything.

"What does a train have to do with me?" Ed wondered, annoyed at the vague "clue", if this even was one.

"Well, I dunno why he would be that open to you, but we have to heard back now," Denny said.

"What?! Why?" Ed snapped. They just found the guy, and they had to go back home again?

"For starters, you got your arm ripped off, you need that fixed. Secondly, the Great Tengu flown off, and if that's true then who knows where he'll be by now? We'll get right back on the field before you know it," Maria assured.

"Come on, I'm fine! Winry, can't you mend that arm for me?" Ed said, trying to get them moving. However, Winry was left with such little to work with thanks to that Tengu.

"I would if I could, these parts are too torn up for a quick fix. I got tools, but not enough that'll get this all mended in the carriage," Winry admitted, one side of her sad she couldn't do anything, and another ticked off at Ed for letting her automail get torn up anyway.

"COME ON ALREADY!" Ed yelled, completely stressed. all of a sudden, Alex suddenly popped up by them, shirtless and flexing again in his manly ways.

"You're acting like a spoiled brat, Edward Elric!" Alex said, flexing his muscles as he said so. That sight surely was unnerving for him, and clammed him up yet made him tumble back.

"Again with the shirtless?" Nagisa thought, also humbled.

"But hold up, don't you want to get him too?!"

"Of course I do, but I'll never risk anyone's lives for it, especially if they belong to someone like you kids! We're setting a course back home," Alex decided.

"Sir, yes sir!" said his lieutenants. As annoying as it was, looks like they had little choice.

~~

After that unfortunate decision, they were off and heading back. Too bad none of them had a clue where the Great Tengu would be, and Nagisa's demon sense was completely dormant so they couldn't use that. Much of them were off and trying to sleep as they were still flying, though that wasn't easy with the space they had to work with in the carriage.

.......

"... You ready to wake up yet?"

"Huh?"

It took a bit, but when Nagisa woke up again, something just felt off. Now, typically in these dreams, Nagisa would be over at Synapse, or something like that, but this time he was still in the carriage. The exception to this was that no one else was there with him. No Twilight, no Ed, none of the lieutenants or angels. Just him.

"That doesn't sound like Lugia. ... Who's out there?" Nagisa wondered. Well, you know what they say about curiosity, and soon Nagisa went out the back of the carriage. It looked fairly darker, but nothing exactly evil looking. Just the typical night sky with a moon overhead. When Nagisa looked ahead though, there sat a particularly unnerving figure.

King Sombra.

"Have a seat," Sombra simply stated, a hand gesturing to sit down at the chair in front of him. Sombra was sitting in one as well, a desk in between both.

"S-Sombra," Nagisa said, hesitant to even leave the carriage at first. He wasn't expecting Sombra to show up here, but something started to pull him from the carriage, and over to the desk. Possibly it was from the dream logic playing against him this time, and soon he was sitting down in the chair. Well, on the bright side, at least he was alone, and no one else will get hurt here. Though some comfort in knowing where they were would help.

"Calm your nerves, human. I can't physically harm you in your dreams even if I wanted to," Sombra made clear, which made sense, though bizarrely, his demon sense wasn't as active as it would be.

"You are there, are you?"

"Your demon sense? It doesn't work in here, but I can assure you I am. Now, I've been meaning to have a word with you, and I believe we both know why," Sombra began. Nagisa knew only one moment he could recall that Sombra would remotely bring up, and Nagisa started to calm down slightly. That didn't mean he got his guard down.

"So you know about that."

"I knew about it for a while now, after some observation of course."

"Right," Nagisa simply said. Sombra leaned in, his hands under his chin as support, as he looked to his adversary in the eyes.

"Let's start off with the obvious question. Your ... "plan". To throw yourself to me for Envy's sake. How did you think you'd get out of that situation the way you did? I could tell you didn't entirely think it through," Sombra questioned. Nagisa turned away from him.

"... I didn't plan on surviving this long. Guess fate wants me alive even if I try not to," Nagisa said.

"I see. Let me start by saying just how wrong that sounds: I can understand if you have a particular goal in mind, or some sort of strong reason where throwing yourself away was the only thing. Or at the very least have an escape plan worked out, but you never did any of that, now did you?"

"Why should it matter to you of all people?" Nagisa questioned.

"Because if the time comes when we face eachother, I'm not going to fight a suicidal dumbass," Sombra replied coldly. Nagisa felt like more of an idiot with all of this thrown at him, like he needed any reminders.

"I know I screwed up, ok? I was completely selfish for not letting my friends help me, I just didn't want any of them killed. Though, how would you know that?" Nagisa replied. Sombra felt a slight sting at the end there, but didn't show it in the face.

"You imply that I don't care for any of my demons, Nagisa?" Sombra questioned.

"You threw Envy away like it didn't matter to you, so why not?"

"Envy is a Homunculus, not a demon. They're far more expendable than a true demon of the underworld. That, and he was screwing up on me and acting too rebellious anyway, though you already knew that," Sombra stated. Thinking back on how willing Envy was to kill them, he honestly felt 50/50 about it. Sombra got up and began to walk around towards Nagisa. If he had his demon sense, it would go crazy by now.

"As a king of Tartarus, I have to take some consideration about my demons, especially with what I'm trying to do. I do not throw in my demons so mindlessly - I have my sanity and compassion in me still, just not for your kind. Why would you think I kept Tirek locked up?" Sombra questioned. To Nagisa, the mention of that word just gave him some bad memories with his involvement with the deity. But, this revelation was a surprise.

"You kept him locked up? Not being bias, but I'd thought you'd work better with him."

"Tirek has a lot of power, yes, but he's too ... what's the word ... trigger-happy. You saw what happened when he released Pluton on the world, something I'd never considered if I could help it. and now thanks to him, not only does the whole world know about us, but I lost my strongest trump card."

"You were planning to use him though."

"... Not right away, you understand." This conversation, to Nagisa, wasn't as surprising as his encounter with the Great Tengu, but it surely was an insight on the situation here. Sombra, the man behind it all, was having a standard conversation with what he assumed was his core enemy: himself. Nagisa got up next and turned to Sombra.

"Sombra? If you're worried about your demons getting hurt, why are you sending them out here at all? just have them stop coming here, and this whole thing can end."

"But I don't want it to end. Not until I reach my goal, anyway. And we know what goal that is, now do we?" Nagisa didn't take much time to figure out what he meant, but only grew more determined to get through to him.

"What do you have against us? We didn't do anything to you before this started."

"You need me to tell you?" Sombra then raised his hand and snapped his fingers. Once he did that, the landscape changed dramatically, and next thing they knew, they were in a rather sketchy part of the city, looking grimy, and polluted everywhere. Nagisa looked around for a bit before looking to Sombra in disbelief.

"You serious? You're mad at humans for polluting the earth?"

"No. I'm mad at you humans for destroying the Earth. The Earth, the Underworld, and the Overworld as well. Ironic, I know: a demon mad for the angel's sake."

"How's the Overworld and Underworld effected, we barely knew you even existed until now!" Nagisa retorted.

"I know that. You humans took the world and made it your own, and the effects from this is suffocating the foundation all of us live on. We Demons and Angels don't do that to our own world, what gives you the right to?" Sombra questioned. That only made Nagisa think more than anything. For the longest time, no human knew their actions would be effecting theses worlds, but it seems that's the case. ... effecting those worlds ...

"Wait. ... Wait a minute, but. No. No, you can't blame us for that!"

"Why. Not?"

"Sombra, no Human knew those worlds existed, not to mention being effected by us. Humans are trying to fix this problem on our own world, how're we supposed to do that to the Underworld and Overworld if we don't even know about it?" Nagisa explained.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's far too late for you to do much. Getting rid of the human race will best secure the future for everyone. ... Speaking of which, that's one thing I was wondering about too."

"The future?"

"Your future. ... Have you learned Future Sight, by chance?"

"Like you need to know!" he quickly replied. Now it was getting dangerous: this was a rather big thing for him to have, and if Sombra found out, it could mean the end of everyone. It was the biggest advantage they got right now.

"Strange. ... You know, I too have Future Sight. I use it during my meditation most of the time, and I've seen those visions myself: the Tengu. Gakuho. And Envy. somehow though, not only did you know all those things, but you even went as far as to prevent them. ... How is that?" Sombra wondered. Nagisa had to think of something.

"... They came to me in a dream," Nagisa simply said. Not the full truth, but truth enough. Sombra stayed quiet for a bit, and turned to Nagisa.

"... A dream. ... Well, some do say that dreams are human's true insight into the world, if they realize it or not," Sombra sighed.

"I can believe that," Nagisa simply said. Sombra just went over back to his seat, hand on the side of his head.

"Oh ... this plot is so predictable," Sombra groaned. Nagisa started to think about what Sombra had said, and in the end ...

"You're probably right. We both probably know what the end's gonna be."

"Humor me then: how do you think this will end up?" Sombra asked, mainly out of amusement more than anything. Nagisa needed a bit to think over the scenario, and through the experiences so far. The end result was a straightforward one.

"Well, it'll probably end in a big fight between your world and mine, possibly with the Overworld involved that is still debatable. And at one point ... it will be a single fight between you and me."

"And that fight will ultimately decide the fate of everyone. Yes, that's practically inevitable at this point. Do note, that I still have my own cards to play in our game, which at this point isn't going to last much longer. And if they don't work, well ... you know by now."

Oddly, Nagisa then smiled.

"I'll be ready for it. Me and my friends. I'm not willing to give up the world I live in, you know that. So when that final fight comes, I'll be ready for you," Nagisa concluded. The answer Sombra was hoping to hear. And just in time: a light began to brighten up further away, coming from the moon.

"A proper note to end it on. I'll be seeing you soon, Nagisa Shiota."

"Looking forward to it, Sombra."